We bought a zoo: the story of musher Rob Cooke

British musher Rob Cooke’s decade-long dream to run the Yukon Quest will finally be fulfilled next weekend.

British musher Rob Cooke’s decade-long dream to run the Yukon Quest will finally be fulfilled next weekend.

The 46-year-old rookie is one of 26 mushers registered for the 1,000-mile race that runs from Whitehorse to Fairbanks, Alaska. The race begins Feb. 2.

Since 2004, Cooke has been working towards his goal of running the Quest – with a pursuit so relentless that he even purchased a 100-acre zoo.

Cooke spent his early career working as an aircraft engineer with the British military. He and his wife Louise spent their spare time mountaineering.

The two began to look for a dog that could accompany them on the trail when Louise’s father sent them a picture of an Alaskan Malamute wearing a pack. The Cookes mistook the dog for a Siberian Husky and purchased one soon after.

And so began a tale that took the couple on the adventure of their lives.

“Somebody said if you get one Siberian Husky, they need company,” Cooke explained. “So we got two.”

Not long after, they were introduced to a “three-wheeled rig” used for dryland racing. Cooke was 31 at the time.

“There’s a lot of purebred racing in the U.K.,” Cooke said. “At one time, it was all just Siberian Huskies that were racing.”

A few years into his dryland racing career, Cooke began to wonder what racing on snow would be like, and began to follow the Quest and Iditarod online. While the Iditarod is a “bigger deal” among British fans, Cooke said the Quest has seen a spike in popularity in Europe.

“I was always more interested in the Quest than the Iditarod,” he admitted. “I felt the Iditarod was too commercialized and the Quest was more of a close-knit thing.

“It’s always been billed as being a much tougher race. I thought it was maybe better for Siberians to do the tougher race.”

While watching the 2004 Quest, he asked himself a question.

“I just started to wonder: ‘Would there be any possibility that we could ever do it with our dogs?’ It really was just a stupid dream to start with. And then we just started to make things happen.”

A short time later, Cooke filed for a military posting in Canada. In 2005, the couple moved to Shubenacadie, N.S., where they worked on expanding their kennel Shaytaan Siberian Huskies.

While the couple soon realized the small farming community was not the mushing capital of Canada, they continued to pursue the dream of the Quest – buying and breeding dogs until their pack swelled to 45.

Today, Cooke’s dog team consists of purely purebred Siberian Huskies, ranging in age from two to seven.

When the military called him back to Britain in 2008, Cooke handed in his wings after a 23-year career, simply so he could remain in Canada.

It was at that time that the couple purchased a zoo in Edmundston, N.B. L’Aqua Zoo, as it was called, had recently closed and the majority of the animals were being sold.

“It had been a really big affair, but it just closed as we bought it,” Cooke said. “We had the property and the fencing, and four llamas, and they got rid of everything else.”

Despite the landmark purchase, he has never watched the 2011 film ‘We Bought A Zoo’ starring Matt Damon.

“My wife’s seen it,” Cooke chuckled. “She says they’re a little too much like us.”

Since then, he has worked at a call centre and repaired electronics, “anything we could do to raise money.”

“The focus has always been the Quest,” Cooke said. “We love Canada. Even if it wasn’t for the Quest, we wouldn’t want to go back to the U.K. now. We just love it, even more so now that we’re in the Yukon. But everything was for the Quest, yeah.”

The couple recently put the zoo on the market in a bid to move to Whitehorse permanently.

The Cookes and their dogs are currently staying with former Quest champion Sebastian Schnuelle, who Cooke met while running the YQ300 in Fairbanks last year.

He finished the YQ300 and the Can-Am Crown 250 in Maine to qualify for the 2013 Quest.

“Since we’ve been here, all the local mushers have been very helpful,” Cooke said.

“It’s been unbelievable how fantastic all of them have been.”

His goal in the Quest is to enjoy the ride as much as possible, and finish the race with as many dogs as he can. His wife will provide support as his dog handler, as will a trio of friends flying in from Scotland.

On the eve of living his dream, Cooke said it has all been worth it.

“I thought I’d be nervous, but I’m not,” he said. “I’m just really looking forward to it.”