About Maja:
Maja (pronounced "my-ya") came to me as a 4 year old from No Kita Siberians in Wisconsin. She was always a very sweet-tempered and independent girl. She wasn't a siberian that was prone to washing your face or begging for attention, but she did like being cuddled. A very delicate siberian, and very feminine, my nickname for her was Miss Maja.
It took Maja a few years to realize that the door on the deck led into a wonderful land of couches and dogbeds and comfort, but once she did it was hard to keep her out of the house! I remember telling her, "Maja, when you retire you can be a full time housedog," and I swear that's what led her to decide one day at the age of 9 that she was all done with being loaded into the truck to go train. :)
In harness Maja was a very hard and focused worker with a lot of speed. She was the type of dog that just keeps going going going, and often pushed the team to lope. She was definitely a valuable addition to my race team over the years and her work ethic and drive were thankfully traits that she passed down to her wonderful kids and grandkids.
Even after retiring off the race team Maja showed little to no signs of slowing down in harness and continued to run with the team in the fall and help train pups.
Just shy of her 13th birthday Maja started limping. At first I believed it to be arthritis, but the pain in her wrist increased to the point of complete lameness within a few weeks. About that same time I discovered an egg-sized lump on her spine that had developed rapidly. The vets at first did not find evidence of cancer but she continued to decline rapidly, and exactly a month after her 13th birthday my suspicion of bone cancer was confirmed. Two days later she passed away. She was buried here at Sibersong, wearing her harness.