Muttnik was a Stray

In 1957 a young dog named Laika became famous as a passenger on board the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 2 spacecraft. She was not the first animal in space but she was the first to orbit the earth.

An article on space.com (here) gives more detail about this particular voyage and also the history of other animals in space. What I found especially interesting was the fact that Laika was a stray dog taken off the streets of Moscow. This was a deliberate ploy by the scientists who thought that a stray would be better conditioned to endure the hardships of a space flight.

I actually believe that this is also a good strategy for prospective dog owners to follow. Many strays, particularly in countries where unowned dogs are an accepted part of society, have an excellent start to life, experiencing a wide range of things from a diversity of people to traffic chaos to a variety of other animals in the first formative months of their life. This gives them a very good chance to become a well balanced, adaptable pet if adopted.

The sad end to Laika’s story was that no attempt was made to bring her back to earth alive and nobody knows how long she survived before her life-support system ran out, perhaps a few hours, perhaps a few days. The craft then burned up on re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere six months later. I wonder if they would have let this happen to a pet dog.

Learn more about the lives and issue of unowned dogs in my e-book ”A Stray View” available from Bangkok Books (readable as .pdf on any computer)