Part beagle and part hound of some sort, Missie was hard-wired to track and hunt. She wasn't a killer, but she could certainly find anything, including us. We'd take her along on lengthy hikes up in the hills of Larkspur or the Russian river, and she'd disappear for hours chasing deer. No matter where or how far we'd gotten in the meantime, she'd track us down, and come galloping up, often literally at the point of collapse from exhaustion.

Early on, she tangled with a raccoon, leaving the small nick on her hindquarters. For some reason, it took a couple times for her to figure out what was bad about skunks, though.