Remembering Misha--Part 2, Dog Days

Misha came to live with us in January 1995 just after our 1st anniversary. She was such an adorable little puppy. And SOOOO smart!! Her crate was too big so we shortened it up with a board to keep her from messing it in. That little stinker figured out she could go over the board to mess and then scramble back to the front so we never knew. She got several days of praise for staying clean until the telltale odor gave her away! She also made a mess on the rug at the garage door. We didn’t realize this either until we noticed the rug was missing. I found it in the laundry room. She had actually messed on the rug and pushed it under, yes, that’s right UNDER the door into the laundry room!!! That was when we realized who was going to run the household!!!

And rule she did. In our house, Hubby was Alpha, Misha was Beta and I was at the very bottom of the pack. She slept in our room on our double bed with us. Actually, Hubby is 6’3” so he took at least half the bed. Misha slept at the bottom of the bed on my side and I got whatever was left. She got to lick the ice cream bowls, pudding cups and yogurt cups clean and leftover soup, sauce and gravy went into her bowl. She was a real talker too. At times I could almost swear she was saying words. She “talked” with such tone and inflection you always knew what she was trying to say.

She loved being outside watching the birds, chasing squirrels and just running!! Huskies LOVE to run! It’s innate!! They can’t help themselves!!! It was great when we moved to North Carolina and had a small fenced back yard that she could play in. We had a hard time getting her to come back inside most days!

She had the best life but that did change some in late 2000. That’s when the kidlets started to join the family. And let’s face it kids change everything. Misha was no longer the center of attention. I had two little ones a year and a half apart and Hubby was working or on-call most of the time. She wasn’t loved any less, however, spreading the time out was difficult and she was getting less attention. She was also getting older and starting to have health problems.

The time came for us to find a new home. Hubby had been commuting about 3hrs each day for over 6 years and we decided enough was enough. It took us over a year but we finally found the perfect house. It was in a rural area on 1.5 acres and it had an invisible fence so Misha would be able to run to her heart’s content!!!! She could chase squirrels and run with the kids all day! It was going to be perfect!!! ……was going to be……..

Remembering Misha--Part 1, Welcome to the Family