Before the launch, one of the mission scientists took Laika home to play with his children. In a book chronicling the story of Soviet space medicine, Vladimir Yazdovsky wrote, "Laika was quiet and charming ... I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live."
I saw a documentary, showing lots of the dogs that went to space, it was so sad to see them good boys all happy and excited getting prepared for the take off.
