Maya

Name: Maya

Age: About 5.5 years younger than Aleu and Kodi

Species: 7/8 Siberian Husky, 1/8 Wolf

Parents: Kiska and Tungsten

Siblings: Kenai, Naira, Spica, Ferric (first litter) // Dakota, Iron, Alasie, Luken, Kala (second litter)

Mate: Theo

Pups: TBA

Appearance: Maya has dark red fur and a white underbelly. Her ears and eyepatches are shaded black. Her red fur runs down most of her legs. Her fur is thick and fluffy and she has a poofy, curly tail. She has bright blue eyes. Though her parents are sled dogs, Maya isn’t build like one; she is more dainty like her grandmother Jenna.

Personality: Out of all the pups, Maya is the most like her mother. She is gentle and caring, and also has great maternal instinct. She hates to see people left out and will reach out to anybody in need. She is a little more outgoing than her mom; she is less shy when it comes to meeting new people. She is very coolheaded and is good at calming others down, but if you anger her, she can get quite vicious — a trait she definitely did not inherit from her mother. Although she enjoys socializing with people, she gets drained out after a while and needs time to herself.

Likes: Her job, helping others, baths, playing, butterflies, puppies, children, autumn

Dislikes: Seeing people sad, bullies, collars, being underestimated, big shots, losing her loved ones

History: Maya was the third oldest in Kiska and Tungsten’s second litter of puppies. Although she wasn’t the oldest sibling, she acted that way and watched over her brothers and sisters as puppies. At eight weeks old she was adopted by a girl named Claire who happened to be best friends and neighbors with Emily, Luken’s owner. Thus, Maya and Luken practically grew up together. 

    Claire’s father saw how gentle Maya was with people and decided she would make a good therapy dog. His wife happened to be a therapist, so it worked out perfectly. Maya would go with Claire’s mom to therapy appointments and help out patients who were struggling. She would also take trips to hospitals and visit sick patients. It brought Maya joy to make the sick patients feel better, not only physically but emotionally as well. She especially got attached to Sally, a little girl who had pneumonia. Sally was Claire’s age, so she and Maya clicked pretty much instantly and became super close; Sally was like a “second human” to Maya. But unfortunately, Sally died of her illness, and Maya was devastated. She felt it was partly her fault, and that she wasn’t good enough to help Sally feel better. After that day, Maya was afraid to go to the hospital or even the therapy office with Claire’s mom, and she would cower away and sometimes even growl whenever Claire’s mom tried to drag her out of the house.

    Luken saw how depressed Maya had become after Sally’s death, and tried to convince her to return to the hospital, but Maya vehemently refused. However, one day, Luken overheard his owner Emily talking with a friend who was saddened by the fact that he never saw Maya at appointments anymore; Maya truly meant a lot to him, especially since his parents didn’t allow him to have a dog. Luken told Maya about this, and he added that even though Sally tragically passed, Maya helped to make her final days on Earth special. Maya then realized she needed to be a therapy dog again so she could continue bringing people joy, so she returned to the office and hospitals and helped to make peoples’ days a bit brighter. It never got easier when people would die, but Maya would feel at peace knowing she helped to give them something to smile about even during their final days.

    One day, news came around that one of Nome's sled teams had gotten into an accident; all members of the team were found except for the lead dog, Theo. Their musher luckily survived, but he was brought to the hospital where Maya worked, and she witnessed his recovery first-hand. Eventually, Theo miraculously returned, but was traumatized after all he had been through. The only one who he really opened up to about it was Maya, whom he had become friends with while seeing her at work whenever he visited his musher at the hospital. Gentle and sweet Maya helped Theo to recover not only physically, but also emotionally. During this time, she developed feelings for Theo, and was elated to find out he felt the same way, so the two became mates.

Relation to Balto: Balto and Steele’s granddaughter