SPACE DOGS/ THE STORY OF THE CELEBRATED CANINE COSMONAUTS

The first canine cosmonaut was Laika, meaning `barker'. The little stray could never have anticipated that she would one day float 2 00 miles above the Moscow streets. She would be canonized as a proletarian hero, appearing on stamps, postcards and souvenirs. Her s uccessors were Belka and Strelka, the first dogs to successfully return safely to Earth, and with them, the cult of the space dog wa s born.