Meet Leo!

From Leo's mom:

On a very cold day in January of 2016, I was meeting up with some friends to hike at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. I was living alone with my one husky, Tucker, at the time and had been enjoying running an Instagram for him and the friendships with fellow dog owners I was starting to form through his page. The meetup hike was with some other “dog instagrammers” from Illinois and we enjoyed a beautiful adventure with our dogs in the snow. We had seen that the park was hosting a dog sled demo event and around half of us had huskies, so obviously we had to go check it out. Come to find out, the sled demo was being put on by Free Spirit Siberian Rescue and some of the dogs on the team were adoptable! After seeing the dogs do their thing, we got to meet them, and that was when I first met Leo - then named Alex. He was trying to jump up to say hello and I immediately fell in love with those icy blue eyes and perfect ears. Being my boyfriend (now husband) was still in college for another year and I was living in a studio apartment with Tucker working my first “real” job, there really couldn’t have been a worse time to add a second dog to our family….but sometimes you just know and fight the odds stacked against you! I asked them right on the spot if I could take him home - they told me he didn’t have any applications in so I should apply soon and if approved he would come home after his sledding season was over! We learned that Leo was picked up as a stray in Kentucky and with no potential adopters in sight he was set to be put down - that was until someone contacted Free Spirit who traveled from Kentucky to bring him back up to Illinois. I don’t know who all was part of that process but I couldn’t be more grateful for them saving this incredible dog and allowing him to become part of our family. Leo officially came home February 13th of 2016 and he and Tucker were instant best friends and he meshed so perfectly into our lives. We Embark tested him and discovered he is 50% husky, 40% Chesapeake Bay Retriever, and 10% American Pitbull Terrier! He’s got those husky blue eyes, but from what I know about chessies I think those genes run most strongly through his personality! He is truly the silliest boy and always makes us laugh with his antics and can also be so endearingly naughty! One look at you with that face of his thought, and all is forgiven. We have continued to be involved in dog sledding sports and his enthusiasm for the sport has never faded, he is always bark, bark, barking until we take off! Leo is truly a once in a lifetime dog and I couldn’t be luckier to call him mine!