About Mia:
Mia was an aloof and very serious dog, particularly with humans. Even with me. I joked that Mia didn't really love me, she just tolerated me because I fed her and took her running. rnrnAnd boy did she love running, and she was amazing at it from the start. And tough as nails. Her very first year in harness she finished a 100 mile race. As I was taking Mia off the line at the end of the race I spotted a good deal of blood around her front feet. I inspected her feet and found she had somehow ripped a toenail out during the run - yet she never even limped or stopped pulling all the way to the finish line. rnrnIncredibly smart, Mia had her father's leading skills and very quickly became one of my main leaders. From 2015 on, Mia and Astrid were my Super Leaders, leading every race I ran. For all that neither girl liked other female dogs, they ran many many races together in lead, even sleeping in checkpoints together without issue. Mia always knew the difference between training and racing and she was all business during races. rnrnIt was hard to accept that Mia wasn't going to run Iditarod with me; it had taken me too long to finish my qualifiers and her last season leading my team was 2020. That November she gave birth to her 3rd and last litter at the age of 9. She is the mother and grandmother to many dogs in my kennel and others - her legacy will live on. rnrnWhen I returned from Alaska in 2022, Mia became a house-dog. To my surprise she gradually turned into my shadow after that. She grew more and more attached to me as the years passed, and never wanted me out of her sight. She would sleep on a dog bed under my desk all day as I worked, and would follow me every time I went to the kitchen or bathroom. At night she would sleep on a dog bed next to my bed. rnrnShe didn't turn very affectionate, but every once awhile she would hop up on the bed and curl up with me, or get up on the couch and cuddle. And she hated to be left behind if I went anywhere. I could even hike or walk with her off leash because she would never venture very far from me. rnThe move to Alaska last summer seemed to upset her though, and she turned into a different, anxious dog. She didn't want to be inside the cabin with me and the other dogs. She was constantly trying to run off. Multiple times she bolted past me when I opened the gate or otherwise got loose, and I'd be frantically chasing or searching for her for a few hours before she would come back on her own or wind up in a neighbor's yard. rnrnThe day after Thanksgiving last November she slipped past me as I was trying to get through the front gate and ran off once again. We searched, put notices out, had a live trap and trail cam out but after 2 weeks I assumed she was probably dead because temperatures had dropped to between -20 and -40. For a younger husky that's fine, but Mia was 14.5 and had been living indoors for a few years. Still, I hoped I was wrong and that perhaps someone had found her and taken her in. Or that she had found some way to survive. rnrnBut in spring as the snow began to melt her remains were found just off one of the winter trails. It appears she was buried beneath the snow there and wolves dug her up. Perhaps they themselves buried her there earlier in the season and returned; or maybe she just curled up there to sleep and died, only to be buried in the large snowstorm that happened a few days after she went missing. I'd rather believe the latter.rnrnRun free my beautiful girl. I loved you.