Juno entered our lives when she was only six weeks old bought from another musher who thought it was okay to take her and her siblings away from their mother way too young. They were placed with two other litters about the same age in a run down shack with little cover or bedding the middle of a very harsh Alaskan winter.

When I came to see her I was very shocked to see her living conditions and instantly wanted to take many of them home, out of the cold and into a warm dog house with ample straw for bedding. We had already been through one of our extreme winter cold snaps and these pups were struggling very hard to stay warm. They shivered and stayed as close to one another as possible but it didn't seem like enough.

Juno was the only one in her litter with one brown patch over her eye but that was not what attracted me to her, it was her mother...

When the musher introduced me to her I noticed her personality right away. Everywhere the musher went she would follow with her eyes and her whole body. Even though he was already walking towards Juno's father her mother expressed a bond with the musher that would not quit. It was encouraging and heartbreaking at the same time to see this. On one hand there was a good chance Juno would retain these qualities but on the other it was very disappointing to see such love and devotion towards such an unresponsible musher.

I found myself thinking of Spock and that same loving gaze he gave his temporary care giver at the Valdez animal shelter. Juno's mother had the exact same loving look, and in Spock, I was blessed with the same devotion and it has bonded he and I so close throughout our years... if Juno even a slight chance of inheriting that trait I knew she had to come to our kennel!

Both parents were only 30 to 35lbs so her size was a bit of a concern. We were looking for new blood to add to our freighting line and even though I knew I would have to make a small sacrifice after I had seen the range of dogs available in our community, I almost turned away fearing that Juno would be way too tiny for our team. In the end I held onto the hope that some of her distant relatives would enhance her genetics allowing her to grow larger, but this was not to be.

Juno grew but remained small and to this day she is the smallest dog in our yard. Her coat grew in very thin and I couldn't understand how such a poorly protected husky could survive in our cold Alaskan winters comfortably, even with a dog house full of straw.

We raised her in the house through the rest of the winter and kept her warm through the next few cold snaps we had that year. I thought of her siblings often and wondered if they were getting along well in the 50 and 60 below zero weather, hoping they all survived their terrible living conditions.

As Juno slept and played with her toys I wondered if she remembered any of her puppy days, how harsh those first few weeks of life must have been for her. But if she missed any of her siblings my dogs more than made up for it. One by one they adopted her as their own when they came into the house for visits and to warm up. Each greeted Juno, played with and cleaned her as if she was their own pup. It was strange seeing this intense bond develop. We had raised pups in the past through our foster care work but most of our dogs bonded far tighter with her than any of the others.

Since it was still mushing season the dogs and continued to train on the trails and when little baby Juno was old enough she was came along with us. She would run along side, behind the sled or whine as she ran to let me know she was tired. As we sped along I would scoop her up and carry her in one arm while the team kept pulling us down the trail. When she had rested a bit she would start to squirm, I would lower her down, making sure she had her footing, let her go and off she flew! She was so fast at her young age. It was amazing how well she kept up with our team!

As the winter passed and we headed into spring it was time for Juno to learn how to live outside but to my surprise I found that she had completely won over James. He was very hesitant to let her sleep outside. I didn't realize they had developed a bond over the winter that drew them very close but I was determined Juno wouldn't be another house dog. We already had three dogs living inside permanently and I knew there would eventually be a need for one of our aging adults to use the indoor space as they eased through their final years.

Having more than three dogs in the house can be stressful for James since he prefers many of them to live outside (and shed their fur outside!) so I am always looking for ways to balance my life as a dog musher and a wife sharing the inside of our wonderful home with my husband.

Juno eventually made the transition outside but James made sure that coming in at night was a solid habit for her. As we eased into the next winter I had plans to build an insulated dog house and tried to think of any other accommodations to help her stay warm but James' worry for her safety out in the cold and her inability to grow a thick winter coat won out. I knew I had no choice but to give in and add one more dog to our inside group.

It has been a decision I have yet to regret...

July 2009