Jenna

Jenna is Balto's mate and the mother of Kodi, Dingo, Saba, Aleu and two other unnamed pups. She serves as the deuteragonist of the first film and in the sequels.

She was voiced by Bridget Fonda in the first movie, and Jodi Benson in the two sequels.

Personality
In the original film, Jenna is kind and sensible, being the only town dog shown who never fawns over Steele and openly stands up to him. She is highly loyal to her owner, Rosy, as evidenced when she stays by her side and does her best to keep watch over her while she is ill with diphtheria.

Despite Balto's outcast status, Jenna is compassionate to him and is his only friend in town. She dislikes Steele for his remarks about Balto and his arrogant attitude, and always sticks up for Balto whenever present, scolding Steele and calling him a "glory-hound." Though she is polite otherwise, she continually rebuffs his flirtatious advances and makes no secret of preferring Balto over him. She is far from gullible, as evidenced when she refuses to believe Steele's story about Balto attacking him and dying.

Jenna is also very cunning, as demonstrated when she tricks Steele into burning his tail by using his infatuation of her against him. She is courageous and willing to resort to battle to protect her loved ones, as evidenced in the original movie when she fights a bear to save Balto and his friends.

In the sequels, she usually stays behind on Balto's adventures despite wanting to help. Jenna also cared a lot for her puppies, but was willing to find them homes after eight weeks.

Appearance
Jenna is a purebred husky with a red and white fur (which she passes down to Kodi and the majority her pups), which is dark red on her ears, back, the upper parts of her legs, and the upside of her tail, and white on her facial, chest, and underside areas. She has small black markings on the tips of her ears and amber eyes. She usually wears an red-orange bandanna around her neck.

Background
Jenna was given to Rosy when she was eight weeks old. It is implied in the first movie she was raised solely within town, unlike Balto, and is a purebred husky.

Balto
Jenna is first introduced with Rosy when Rosy gets her sled. Rosy harnesses her to it, and Jenna pulls the sled with her on it to the beginning race. At the race, she meets with Dixie and Sylvie. Dixie shows off her new collar to them, revealing her hopes that Steele will notice, but Jenna shows skepticism saying, "afraid the only way Steele notices anyone is if they're holding a mirror".

When the race begins, Rosy's hat falls out of her hand and into the path of Steele and his team. She tries to reach for it, but Jenna grabs her sleeve in an effort to keep her out of potential harm's way. Balto joins the last leg of the race to retrieve the hat, and at the end of it, she is grateful to him when he returns the hat to her owner. Rosy mock-admonishes Balto for doing such a crazy thing "just to show off to a pretty girl", indicating Jenna, and attempts to harness him to her sled as well to join Jenna on their team, but Rosy's father steps in to take her away, telling her Balto might bite her because he's part-wolf. While Rosy protests that he hurt his feelings, Jenna disappointedly watches Balto slink off.

As Balto begins to leave, Steele approaches Jenna and invites her to celebrate his victory at the race with him, claiming he knows "where all the bones are buried". She turns down his proposition by stating she's lost her appetite, but Steele picks up on this and comments darkly that her tastes run towards wolf, indicating Balto. Jenna shows annoyance, but takes the opportunity to excuse herself when Rosy calls for her and runs off to join her.

On the way back home with her owners, she runs into Balto again when he collides into her and their noses nearly touch. When Rosy calls for her again, she turns and looks briefly back for Balto, before realizing he's gone. She follows his tracks back briefly and sniffs around slightly, unaware he's hiding, before being called again and leaving.

Jenna is later seen at the hospital, waiting outside in the snow for Rosy. She barks when she sees Rosy at the window, and Rosy greets her, running out the door to see her. They briefly play in the snow, but stop when Rosy falls into another violent coughing fit. Jenna noses her elbow in concern and Rosy pets her, but Rosy's father comes out to take her back inside. Jenna is once again left out in the snow, and she moves to sit beside the window to see what's going on.

While she sits, she initially doesn't notice Balto coming up behind her. She greets him when he speaks up, but doesn't look away from the window. He initially tries to ask her out, but gives up on it when he sees her sadness and joins her at the window. Jenna tells him about Rosy's cough and, in desperation, asks him what's wrong with her.

Balto's response is to lead her to a locked wooden door, where he pulls the pins out of the hinges to open it. Jenna follows him through the boiler room and into a tunnel, being briefly surprised by a large spider web before Balto flicks it away with his tail. Balto tells her about the place being the most beautiful in the world, and she comments she can't see why.

They end up in a dark room beneath the hospital, and she shows skepticism when Balto gathers a pile of broken bottles, calling them the polar ice caps, and motions to the light in calling it the sun. However, when he positions the bottles and moves away, the light illuminates them and the wall is shimmering with the colors reflected from the bottles. Jenna is awed, realizing they appear as the Northern Lights, and tells Balto it's beautiful while staring at them. He makes a comment in agreement, but says it while looking at her. She returns his gaze, and they seem poised to touch noses right before the light goes out; the doctor having turned off the light in Rosy's room.

Jenna and Balto move briefly to follow the conversation as the doctor goes into another room with Rosy's father. They listen to the doctor tell her father that Rosy's condition appears to be diphtheria, and she's the eighteenth case he has this week, but he's out of antitoxin. Jenna, upset by this, leaves and heads back into the boiler room, and Balto follows. Balto apologizes to her, but she waves it off, telling him she's glad he took her there. They're interrupted by the sound of a crash just outside the room, which turns out to be by Steele, who enters with a stolen chain of sausages in his mouth.

Steele propositions her to join him for dinner, yanking her to his side by throwing the chain around her. He tells her she can start at one end, he at the other. Balto tries to intervene by biting at the chain, but Jenna tells him no and instead begins to flirt with Steele. By doing this, she tricks him into backing up against the boiler door, burning his tail, and he screams in pain. She and Balto take advantage of this and run, but Steele, in giving chase, crashes through the door and lands behind them. The butcher and Rosy's father begin to approach, flashlights out, and Jenna and Balto continue to run. Steele, however, throws the sausage chain around Balto and knocks him down just when the two men see them, framing Balto as the thief and himself as the hero in pursuit of him. Jenna tries to follow Balto when Rosy's father kicks snow at him to make him run off, but the man holds her back by grabbing her bandanna, and she is forced to return home with him.

The next day, the race to find the fastest dog team is held. Jenna attends, joining Sylvie and Dixie in the sidelines. Dixie gushes over Steele and how he'll save the entire town, but Jenna points out the purpose of the race being to find the best team. Dixie retorts, asking her if she ever gives Steele a sniff despite being a "genuine hero", but before Jenna can respond, Sylvie talks about how Jenna is running with Balto and that they were seen together. She adds that Jenna shouldn't bother to deny it, as she'd heard it from "a very reliable source". Jenna replies calmly that she won't, rendering Sylvie speechless.

When the race begins, Jenna is astonished to see Balto running with the other dogs. However, she adapts quickly and begins cheering for him alongside Boris.

Once the race finishes, with Balto having won, Steele comes to see the winners and have them harnessed on his team. When Balto points out he finished first, Steele tells him off and Jenna intervenes angrily to support Balto, telling Steele to stop being a "glory-hound". However, although Steele concedes to her, he induces a growl out of Balto by stepping on his foot when the judges come up to meet him and tricks them into believing he would be a danger to the team. Balto, dispirited, decides to leave, although Jenna apologizes to him on their behalf and tries to call for him to wait.

At the hospital, Jenna is finally let into the room to see Rosy. She comes up to Rosy's bedside, laying her head against her when Rosy falls asleep. Unbeknownst to her, Balto is watching through the window, and is now more determined than ever to find the sled team.

Later, when left outside again, Jenna rests her head on the hospital windowsill out of sadness when looking in on Rosy. She picks up on Balto's scent, however, and looks around to see his paw prints leading away from the window and towards the forest.

She follows Balto's tracks, and finally meets with him, Boris, Muk and Luk when a bear is attacking them. When the bear has Balto pinned to the snow under his paw and raises his other to strike the killing blow, Jenna attacks with a battle cry, grabbing onto the bear's raised paw with her teeth. She struggles with the bear, but the bear throws her off and knocks her into the branch trapping Luk and Muk, toppling it over. When the bear chases Balto out onto the ice, she and the rest run after them, but are unable to catch up before the ice cracks and the bear is sent down through it, but the patch under Balto also flips over, sending him into the water. Luk and Muk jump in to rescue him, and Jenna runs to the spot they jumped through. She shows disbelief when Boris tells her they can't swim, and runs out onto the ice to look for where Balto is under it. She scratches off some snow to see him trapped, right before he is swept away. When Boris resurfaces his head from the water, he tells her he can't see them, and they are left to wonder where they are before Luk and Muk surface with a nearly drowned Balto.

Once Balto is on dry ground, Jenna runs to him. They ask each other if they're okay at the same time, and Jenna reassures him she's fine. Seeing him shivering, she lies down on top of him to give him warmth and tells him a message came through, and they have to take the mountain trail. He protests it'll save them half a day if they take Eagle Pass, but she tells him it's blocked and the mountain trail is dangerous, but they can do it.

Once Balto is recovered, Jenna gets up to walk, but she collapses in the snow when she tries to, due to having hurt her leg. Balto takes notice, although she initially waves it off as being clumsy. After another failed attempt to walk, however, she admits she isn't fine and tells them to go ahead without her, that she'll be slowing them down and Rosy won't be able to hold out much longer.

Balto tells Luk and Muk to carry Jenna back to town, giving them a broken tree branch to use. He tells Boris to lead them home by using the marks he made on the trees. Jenna is in disbelief that he's going on alone, and thus chooses to give him her bandanna by slipping it off and putting it over his head. She comments she's afraid it won't keep him very warm, but he reassures her it will, and they nuzzle. He promises her he'll come back with the medicine, and tells Luk and Muk to take her home. After some advice from Boris, Balto leaves, and Boris leads Luk and Muk to drag the tree branch with Jenna on it back to town.

Back in town, Jenna meets with the other dogs in the boiler room, having told them about Balto's journey. When a dog asks how Balto can find Steele and the team if they're off the trail, she says he's tracking them. However, they only laugh at the idea, just before Steele appears at the door. For a split second, she initially mistakes him for Balto, but frowns when realizing it's Steele. The other dogs crowd around Steele, giving him his bone and asking what happened. When Steele plays up his fake story of what happened, claiming that the rest of the team froze to death while he carried the medicine alone, and Balto demanded to take the medicine. He tells Jenna Balto wanted to be a hero in her eyes, but died. In an attempt to confirm his story, he pulls out Jenna's bandanna and tells Jenna that Balto made him promise to take care of her.

Jenna, however, is not fooled. She calls him out on his lies, telling the other dogs that Balto is alive and is coming home. She takes her bandanna and runs out. She then takes the broken bottles and a lantern, dragging them up the hilltop outside Nome. She positions the lantern and arranges the broken bottles, before standing back. Colors spread out against the hill, making a signal over Nome, and she stands briefly to watch them.

Later, she is seen at Rosy's bed again when she hears Balto's howling. Joyfully, she barks, alerting Rosy's parents to rush to the window and see the team returning.

When Balto comes into the room to see Rosy, Jenna is at the door. They jump about playfully before touching noses and nuzzling. As the townspeople cheer for Balto, Jenna stands by his side, with their affection for each other truly affirmed.

Balto II: Wolf Quest
Sometime after the events of the first film, Balto and Jenna got married and Jenna gave birth to a litter of pups. Balto helped care for them, likewise keeping watch as they were given away at eight weeks old.

When Aleu ran away, Jenna attempted to follow Balto but he insisted that she stay behind and that it was something the father and daughter needed to work out together.

Balto III: Wings of Change
When Balto was chosen to help Kodi save his job a few years later, she encouraged Balto to help.

Balto was worried that he would let the team down and that he wasn't a hero, Jenna reassured him that if he could save a whole town, then he could help save Kodi's job.

After Balto left to save Duke by himself, Jenna scolded Kodi for letting Balto go alone and convinced Kodi to follow him. She awaited anxiously for his return, howling a cheer when the team came to town.