The Tribune

MICHELLE Hope has swum, cycled and run her way through 10 triathlons but the mother of two will make history on Saturday in the Potcakeman Triathlon as the first competitor to take part in athletic gear provided by the official trade association dedicated to pet wellness, the Pet Food Institute (PFI).

Hope, a civil, structural and environmental engineer, won the right to have the triathlon outfit designed especially for her by winning the PFI’s Facebook contest answering the question “Tell us why nutrition is important for pets”. She also had to demonstrate a passion for pets.

“If I didn’t have a stream of bad luck, I’d have no luck at all, so I’m really excited about this because I already feel like a winner,” Ms Hope said.

“I’m really grateful to the Pet Food Institute. I think what PFI is doing is very important for the pets of the Bahamas”

She is not joking about the streak of bad luck. Always strong academically, she began athletic training as a way to overcome tragedy.

“My mom died and my husband left in the same year. I had watched my mother’s strength as she battled cancer and her courage inspired me,” she said. “She kept reaching deeper and I realised we can all do that. Sometimes you have to push yourself to find that strength, but we all have it and when you need it, you find it.

Even her relationships with dogs have not left happy memories. “I have had many lovely dogs but when I was young, we had a dog that beat up on my brother and another that was stabbed to death,” she said.

“I did try getting a dog not too long ago, a rescue dog, but it had distemper and died.”

Now she says they look after six family and friends’ dogs regularly and hope to get another dog soon but for now she and her children consider their cat an important part of the family. Her daughter, Lily, 8, and son, Luke, 6, will be participating in the puppy triathlon on Saturday, their first.

Olympic division participants will swim 1,500m, cycle 42km and finish with a 10km run. Sprint division participants will do half the distances in each leg.

Proceeds from the Potcakeman Triathlon, sponsored in part by PFI, go toward spaying and neutering by BAARK, the Bahamas Alliance for Animal Rights and Kindness. Since its founding seven years ago, the all-volunteer organisation has spayed or neutered more than 5,200 dogs and cats in its efforts to reduce the homeless animal population and end the suffering of animals in the Bahamas. Using internationally accepted statistics that one female dog can produce up to 67,000 puppies in six years, BAARK estimates it has prevented as many as one million unwanted animal births.

“We are pleased to support BAARK in The Bahamas and its efforts to reduce the homeless animal population,” said Nat Daniels, Executive Director of PFI, a non-profit organisation that promotes initiatives to advance pet nutrition and the quality of pet care and wellness. The Washington, DC-based association that falls under the Department of Agriculture supports education in the US, Mexico and four regional countries - the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and Jamaica.