by Channel 2 News staff
Saturday, February 27, 2010
A missing lead dog from Lance Mackey's team has been found.
Mackey says a female dog named Girlfriend took off Friday as he was taking her out of her truck kennel in the parking lot of the Courtyard Marriott on Spenard Road.
She was spotted by a number of people in the Sand Lake area, including Mackey, but none of them were able to get close to her because she was scared.
Mackey says at about 4 a.m. Saturday, employees from Million Air Company found her near the airport and turned her in. Mackey called it a nice ending to a bad day.
"It was just heart-wrenching," Mackey said. "I didn't know how, if we hadn't have found her and I had to leave for Iditarod, knowing that she was running around the streets of Anchorage -- you know, I don't know that I would've been able to focus so much on racing."
Mackey says he's grateful for all of the help he had in finding Girlfriend.
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