Though not as fast as most of my dogs, Vixen was my first consistent leader. Her age starting to show and her mileage in lead dropped a lot during the 2006-2007 season. Since then, she has kept up during training, but she has not made the main team. Still, she did get to run during the ceremonial start for the Iditarod.

Among her other skills, Vixen is the dog who is the best at making snow angels. She easily does a 360 about the axis of the tug line without getting tangled in any of the tugline, the towline, or the neckline (think about twirling a corn dog). When she was in lead, particularly, she’d sneak over to the right side of the line without me noticing or any sort of tangle. Vix definitely has good line savvy.

Vixen is also quite playful in the play yard. She and Fondue have always been best buddies. She and Fondue will frequently stalk each other and “pounce” in play.

Vixen is also the dam for Ghost and Gonja. Sometimes when one or both of them are acting particularly goofy I turn to Vixen and say, “This one is yours.” She just turns back to me and says, “Give me my food.”

I remember the first year I ran her, she would come in from runs and feign total exhaustion. She overacted just a wee bit. At that time she probably had better overall stamina than any of my other dogs. Of course, she was in her prime and four of the remaining five were just older pups.  The only one who was also in her prime was Fondue and that was the year Fondue earned the name “Little Shit.”