Emmy, oh Emmy, you optimistic dreamer. Yes, it would be lovely to imagine that the Russian space pooch of which you sing is still having a lovely life up there. But sadly the reality is nowhere near as delightful, and I fear you ought to know the truth in a gentle friendly manner before the grown ups start shouting at you.
For starters, we hate to tell you this, but animals live considerably shorter lives, for the most part, than we humans. Laika was fired into the dark unknown in 1957, and was estimated to have been around three years old at the time. That would make her 71 years old at this point in history, which is just shy of 500 years in doggy terms. Quite an innings for a tree, let alone a medium-sized mammal.
On top of that, the poor lass was only given enough food for six days, and there was no heating in her tiny cramped cabin. So if she managed to survive the shock of the launch and the hypothermia of life in space, she would probably have only survived for about a fortnight at best, bless her. And as if all that wasn't enough, Sputnik 2, the craft of her sad demise, fell to back to Earth from its short orbit just over five months after its launch. So your chances of there being any kind of party going between Laika and all the various fruit flies, monkeys, mice and other pups that were up there even days after she first went up are pretty slim.
And I must also take issue with some of your other statements, ma'am. It's doubtful that anyone cheered her off, as the Baikonur Cosmodrome was an ultra secret facility in the deserty wastes of Kazakhstan. And as for the supposition that if she hadn't flown, neither would the rest of us, am I to assume that the Wright Brothers mean nothing to you? Or Louis Blériot? The Montgolfiers, perhaps? Quite when do you imagine that powered flight began, ma'am? Or quite what they were up to when they kidnapped poor Laika from the cold streets of Moscow?
Oh Emmy. Sweet sweet Emmy. Remember that hamster you had that seemed to live for your entire childhood? That was actually seven different hamsters. Your parents carefully replaced each one after it passed away after about a year or so. And Timmy your lovely ginger cat that suddenly changed personalities strangely when you were around seven? That'll be Timmy #1 and Timmy #2 I'm afraid. The latter turned up after the former had a sad incident with a delivery van, but thankfully you never noticed. Perhaps that's why you seem to think that Laika could live forever in one of the most hostile environments known to life?
We hate to break it to you, Emmy, but we think you're old enough to understand now. Possibly…
For starters, we hate to tell you this, but animals live considerably shorter lives, for the most part, than we humans. Laika was fired into the dark unknown in 1957, and was estimated to have been around three years old at the time. That would make her 71 years old at this point in history, which is just shy of 500 years in doggy terms. Quite an innings for a tree, let alone a medium-sized mammal.
On top of that, the poor lass was only given enough food for six days, and there was no heating in her tiny cramped cabin. So if she managed to survive the shock of the launch and the hypothermia of life in space, she would probably have only survived for about a fortnight at best, bless her. And as if all that wasn't enough, Sputnik 2, the craft of her sad demise, fell to back to Earth from its short orbit just over five months after its launch. So your chances of there being any kind of party going between Laika and all the various fruit flies, monkeys, mice and other pups that were up there even days after she first went up are pretty slim.
And I must also take issue with some of your other statements, ma'am. It's doubtful that anyone cheered her off, as the Baikonur Cosmodrome was an ultra secret facility in the deserty wastes of Kazakhstan. And as for the supposition that if she hadn't flown, neither would the rest of us, am I to assume that the Wright Brothers mean nothing to you? Or Louis Blériot? The Montgolfiers, perhaps? Quite when do you imagine that powered flight began, ma'am? Or quite what they were up to when they kidnapped poor Laika from the cold streets of Moscow?
Oh Emmy. Sweet sweet Emmy. Remember that hamster you had that seemed to live for your entire childhood? That was actually seven different hamsters. Your parents carefully replaced each one after it passed away after about a year or so. And Timmy your lovely ginger cat that suddenly changed personalities strangely when you were around seven? That'll be Timmy #1 and Timmy #2 I'm afraid. The latter turned up after the former had a sad incident with a delivery van, but thankfully you never noticed. Perhaps that's why you seem to think that Laika could live forever in one of the most hostile environments known to life?
We hate to break it to you, Emmy, but we think you're old enough to understand now. Possibly…
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