This Jewish Dogsled Racer’s Puppy Tweets Are the Only Good Thing Left on Twitter

By 
Blair Braverman

Blair Braverman knows the power of a puppy photo. The Jewish dogsled racer and writer —she qualified for the Iditarod this past spring and published her debut memoir last year — is a prolific tweeter.

Blair told Alma earlier this year that Twitter is exciting for her because as a storyteller she gets to share “a kind of real-time serial, with subplots and inside jokes and recurring themes.” She has nearly 25,000 followers, who she affectionately refers to as “Ugly Dogs.” (As she wrote recently, “Ugly Dog is not an insult but rather a delightful term of endearment that fans of the team have adopted for themselves/ourselves”)

Earlier in the summer, two of her dogs gave birth to puppies. Giving Blair and her husband, Quince, two litters of puppies. And they’ve been sharing the best stories. As one fan tweeted, “Following @BlairBraverman has improved my Twitter feed ratio to only about 95% trashfire politics, and 5% super adorable puppers.”

Twitter in 2018 is truly an awful place. The company refuses to ban Nazis and conspiracy theorists, and sometimes you feel like you’re just endlessly scrolling, continuing to read more bad news and more bad news. There’s also racist tweets from the President. But fear not! Blair’s stories about puppies are here to save your feeds.

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We’re here to share eight of our favorite threads. (PSA: If you click on the link where it says “first tweet here,” you can read the full threads. It would be too much to embed them all!)

1. “We have a lot of puppies right now” 

On June 25, Blair started tweeting about their new puppies.

There are two groups of puppies — she calls them the “minis” and the “maxis” — and this particular thread was about her introducing the two of them.

It’s a delightful series of tweets — and videos — about introducing the two groups of puppies, and will 100% make you forget everything wrong in the world. (First tweet here.)

2. “Tornado Clean-Up” / Magic Puppies

On July 5, Blair tweeted she “came home to some minor tornado wreckage” (she lives in Wisconsin), so she shared a thread about getting the puppies to help with “a clean-up party.”

About halfway through, the thread pivots to another story: about one of Blair’s dogs named Hari, who is blind.

Honestly, the whole thing is extremely inspirational, scroll through it all (First tweet here).

3. “Glory Goes West” 

On July 17, Blair shared a story of one of her dogs, Glory.

She writes, “Sled dogs are born to love pulling, so we usually have the opposite challenge: How to make sure a dog gets to run, even if they can’t keep up with the others? But once in a very rare while, we get a couch potato.”

So, when Blair’s parents’ 16-year-old dog passed away, Blair and her family decided that Glory was going to go live with them. Hence, “Glory goes west.”

It’s truly an inspirational tale about figuring out your own path in life.

4. Literally Just lots of Puppy Photos 

July 22, Blair decided to share a thread of teeny tiny puppy photos. (First tweet here.)

Really just lots of puppies. Nothing to complain about!

5. Puppies get lost 

On July 25, a harrowing adventure. (First tweet here.)

Blair shares how they were out on a walk, and the puppies just disappeared.

(Can I spoil a tweet thread? Spoilers ahead, I guess…)

They eventually find the puppies and give them cheese. It’s super heartwarming.

6. Postcards from other dogs 

This is “Glory Goes West” part two, where Blair shares messages from the other dogs to Glory (first tweet here). She writes, “And since dogs can’t send postcards, today I asked her friends and family if they have any messages for her. Here are my attempts at translation.”

The “messages” from the other dogs range from meaningful to silly:

And ending on a very poetic note, from Hari, who is Glory’s dad:

7. Colbert scared of heights 

On August 5, Blair shared a small part of her day to day routine: visiting all the dogs. (First tweet here.) And when she was hanging out with one dog, named after Stephen Colbert, she noticed he didn’t want to go on top of his dog house.

A series of A+ tweets followed:

The tweets conclude with Blair writing, “I promised to pet Colbert on the ground every single day. And he was so happy. His secret was out, and no one thought less of him. In fact, we loved him all the more, because we knew him that much better.”

What a great outlook on life.

8. Running at your own pace

On August 11, Blair shared a “big project” she’s been working on lately: teaching the puppies to free-run. (First tweet here.)

She writes that every few minutes, they stop for “cuddles and praise and cheese.” Honestly, an ideal learning situation.

And their motto on learning? “For every pup to understand that they are an AMAZING MAGIC SUPER ATHLETE, regardless of their pace!”

Go follow Blair Braverman on Twitter. You won’t regret it.

Read our interview with Blair Braverman here. 

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