My Mia, My Heart

On June 5, 2003 a litter of puppies was born to “Gal” and “Zoom” up on Flagstaff Mountain. Gal was a search and rescue dog and Zoom was a field trial champion. I will never forget driving up Flagstaff mountain to look at the litter and was instantly in love with baby pink. All of the puppies had different colored ribbons around their necks so they could be easily identified and charted. Baby pink was a sweetheart. From day one she would let you flip her on her back, belly up in the air and just lay there legs akimbo waiting for that belly rub.

Mia's pedigree information

I made several visits up to Flagstaff mountain trying to decide which puppy to pick. I had second choice of the litter, the first choice going to the sire’s owner. For some reason I kept on going back to baby pink. And in the end baby pink became a member of the Geden household. Her AKC registered name became Jenner’s Gal Mia. She was named after her mother, Gal, and her grandfather, Jenner.

Jenner was the star in the lineage, a nationally recognized FEMA search and rescue dog. While he was alive, he was considered one of FEMA’s top 10 search and rescue dogs in the entire country. Jenner did search and rescue during the big flood in Fort Collins, CO. He was sucked into a sewer line during the rescue efforts and emerged from a man hole a few miles from where he was sucked in, never worse for the wear. Jenner also did search and rescue at the World Trade Center after 9/11. A few years after that mission, he was diagnosed with cancer (many of the search and rescue dogs who worked at the World Trade Center came down with cancer after the fact) and eventually died from it.

Jenner’s Gal Mia, or simply my Mia, never developed those keen search and rescue instincts of both her grandfather and mother, although she was never trained to develop them. Mia has spunk and drive and will do anything for love and attention – even if it means eating the plants in the backyard. Mia loves to retrieve and will do it till she drops. She is always at my side. Nick and I once joked that if we had waited a few months to name her we would have named her shadow because she is always one step behind me.

Mia is my heart, my rock, my joy. Through the good times and the bad times she is always there. She is my couch partner at night when we watch tv, my deck partner in the morning when I sit outside and have my coffee, my office partner when I am on the computer always laying by my feet and my solace when I am sad, always willing to curl up next to me and rest her head on my lap.

People always talk about dogs and unconditional love and it is so true. A dog wants to be an integral part of the household pack, will quickly learn its place in the hierarchy and from the day it is born to the day it dies will provide loads and loads of love. Mia is not the first. There was King, Seagrams, Pepper, Ditto, Tina and Garbo. The breeds have varied from Boxer to Pomeranian, Cairn Terrier, German Shepherd and Black Lab. They have all been my heart, they were all special. I will always carry a piece of their precious spirits with me as long as I am alive.

But Mia is here now. I have learned to cherish every moment with your pet because they are unique, special and irreplaceable. And that is there beauty – they are special spirits filled with nothing but goodness. I am thankful every day for all the pets I have had in my life, but I am especially thankful today for Mia.

So, Happy soon-to-be Birthday, Jenner’s Gal Mia. You are my joy, my light, my heart. I love you sweet baby girl. Thank you for the love and joy you bring into our lives.