"Mistress Yelena… Let me out… Can't you take me home with you?"
— Laika's inner voice before being launched into space
Any story that ends with a dog dying is already bound to make most people sniffle. But a story about a real stray dog who just wanted to be loved and ended up dying in space? Get ready to bawl like a baby.
- Liliana and her mother Tatiana are the only two people in Kudryavka’s life who love her unconditionally and never hurt or betray her, but they never see her again after they give her away to Mikhail and his mother. Even so, they never forget her; Liliana keeps a drawing of Kudryavka in her bedroom years later.
- When Kudryavka is a little puppy, Liliana asks to keep her, and her mother says no because they already have a dog and cat. Later, after getting the news that Kudryavka “ran away” (actually Mikhail threw her off of a bridge), Tatiana expresses regret that she didn’t keep Kudryavka after all.Tatiana: You were a special dog. I should have kept you.
- Tatiana gives Kudryavka to Mikhail even though she knows he is a mean bully, because she hopes that taking care of her will make him a better person. She is unfortunately wrong; Mikhail does not want Kudryavka, but is forced to take her by his mother, and so he feels nothing but resentment for the dog and keeps her shut in a dark closet most of the time.
- When Kudryavka is a little puppy, Liliana asks to keep her, and her mother says no because they already have a dog and cat. Later, after getting the news that Kudryavka “ran away” (actually Mikhail threw her off of a bridge), Tatiana expresses regret that she didn’t keep Kudryavka after all.
- Mikhail is a huge asshole, but he doesn’t have the warm, loving home life his cousin Liliana has. His mother vacillates between being cold to him and raging at him, and his father hits him in the back of the head and makes him give his dinner to Kudryavka. No wonder he doesn’t love her—he doesn’t seem to know how to love, having been raised in that kind of household.
- Kudryavka runs out to find Mikhail, but she accidentally trips him while he’s playing soccer with his friends. They laugh at him, inflaming his temper and causing him to lash out at them. They walk away, saying they don’t want to play with him if he keeps going off like that. He looks miserable, lying on the grass all alone, and yells at Kudryavka to go away.
- It is implied that Mikhail is violent and has a Hair-Trigger Temper because that’s the way his father treats him at home. Acting like his father has made him an angry, lonely, bitter person, but he doesn’t know how to be anything else. And he’s only a young boy.
- After being thrown out onto the streets to live as a stray, Kudryavka sleeps under a bridge, dreaming about Tatiana and wanting to be with her again.
- Kudryavka howling in sorrow after her friend Gertruda is brutally killed by the dogcatcher.
- After two dogs are killed on a space mission, Gazenko emphasizes to Yelena that Korolev isn’t the nice person she thought he was, and that talk about being proud of their space dogs and their “big Russian hearts” was a lie—he doesn’t even really care about people, let alone dogs. She goes to hug Kudryavka to feel better.
- The Soviet space personnel getting the news that they have less than a month to design, build, and launch Sputnik 2, which means they only have enough time to build it so it can go into space carrying Laika, but not come back. Yelena and Gazenko are clearly devastated.Gazenko: (sitting in a bathroom stall, burying his head in his hands) I'm sorry, Laika...I'm sorry, Yelena...
- Why is the deadline so short? The Premier of the Soviet Union insisted that Sputnik 2 be finished in time for the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution. In other words, Laika’s life was sacrificed to give the Soviet government an ego boost and put them ahead of the United States in the space race. With the author’s notes revealing that even the scientific data gathered from Sputnik 2 was minimal, it makes her death seem like even more of a waste.
- The biggest, saddest moment in the entire comic: Laika dying inside Sputnik 2. It was inevitable, but the scientists at least planned for her to survive seven days and then die painlessly from eating poisoned food. She doesn't even get that, due to a malfunction of the satellite. Instead, she suffers a slow, agonizing death from overheating in a tiny cramped space over four hours.
- In the last few moments of her life, Laika becomes a black silhouette on a white background, going into the light—and then, a small black screen, the video feed from Sputnik 2 turns into static, and Yelena begins to weep.
- Liliana and her mother listening to the news about Sputnik 2 on the radio, unaware that “Laika” is their Kudryavka.
- After Sputnik 2’s launch, Yelena quits the Soviet space program because she can no longer bear to be involved with risking the lives of the dogs she loves so much. Her last appearance is her silently saying her last goodbye to Albina, closing her cage, leaving the facility and walking sadly down the street.
- The last few pages show Sputnik 2 burning up and disintegrating in the atmosphere five months after launch, taking Laika’s (unseen) remains with it, followed by a quote from the real Oleg Gazenko in 1998.Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us. We treat them like babies who cannot speak.
The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.
