Balto, Lead Dog

It seems appropriate to write about those that labor.  There is along list of animals that work.  This includes around farms, mining and industry over the years.  The tiny canary for years was a sentinel for toxic gasses for miners. 

Balto is the name of a Siberian Husky sled dog from Alaska.  Balto is remembered for being the lead sled dog that delivered diphtheria antiserum to Nome Alaska in 1925.   The run is commemorated by a six hundred mile annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. 
He was one of twenty teams of dogs and their mushers that ran through a whiteout blizzard with temperatures hovering near minus seventy degrees below zero.  There was snow and wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour.  Brutal conditions for any era.   The rest of the story is that Balto's musher, Gunnar Kaasen, did not stop when the last relay team should have handed the antiserum to the next team.  The appointed driver had fallen asleep.  There is a lot to be said for finishing first.  The most treacherous portion of 91 miles was completed by Leonhard Seppala and his star lead dog Togo the.   Mr.  Seppala was a record setting dogsledder in the far north.  The person delivering the "goods" is included in the first  news to down below or the outside as Caucasian Alaskans refer to the rest of us.  There was of course the collection of pennies by schoolchildren that reportedly paid for the Statue erected in Central Park.  The dog in the statue is Balto but the awards depicted were the ones Togo had won.  There were many bad feelings between the two Norwegian sledders.  Musher purist state the largest work and honor should have been allocated to Seppala and Togo.

Ironically, what was put together as a team effort was not celebrated in unity.  The dogs were the heroes.  Jealousy drove the search for fame and glory by individuals.  President Calvin Coolidge and the press heaped publicity on Balto.  The public absolutely loved the cast off sled dog to hero story.  There was enough honor and glory saving the day but slights of your best friend are hard to accept even if it is your dog.
Instead of celebrating the triumph together as one huge team, a wedge of envy was hammered between two key players.  Balto excluded from a ceremony in New York in where Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen presented Seppala and Togo with awards.  After notoriety and Hurrah had died down Balto's team was on exhibit in Los Angles, CA.  George Kimble, a Cleveland businessperson, found the team on the Vaudeville tour under deplorable conditions of housing and nutrition.  He purchased the team and moved it to the Cleveland Zoo.
Balto's statue, sculpted by Frederick Roth, was placed in New York City's Central Park on December 17, 1925, just 10 months after Balto's arrival in Nome.  Balto was present for the monument unveiling.  The statue is located on the main path leading north from the
A low-relief plaque depicts Balto's sled team with this inscription:
"Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925. 
Endurance · Fidelity · Intelligence"
Balto (c.1919-14 March 1933)
It would be wonderful if we humans could serve our duty without the need for personal glory.  This true story of performance under miserable conditions is played out daily in the lives of a working stiff and their animals.  My grandparents and parents daily worked at jobs that needed finishing today.  Their wages were nowhere near what have until recently been readily available to most Michiganders.  
They did try to fly the diphtheria antiserum into Nome.  The airplane they available had a frozen motor and would not start.  Remember this was 1925 airplanes available then were World War I vintage.  Open cockpit style planes.  There were no heated planes and good insulated clothing was sixty years in the future.  What did come out of Balto's adventures was passage of the Kelly Act.  This Act allowed air delivery of mail and other health related materials into the wilderness of interior Alaska. 
There were between six and seven deaths due to diphtheria in Nome and enough in the region to be approximately one hundred total.  I am amazed by the hardiness, strength, and drive needed by the animals and their mushers to be able to handle such a hostile environment.  Our animals will do what is asked of them.
I wish to report we did make the pilgrimage to the Michigan State Fair.  Our Granddaughter Paige had her pickled Watermelon rinds invited to be exhibited in the youth division.  They were exhibited in the Cultural Arts Building.  Paige got a second place ribbon and first place in her Poppa's eyes and heart.  Her smile showing them to us was just beaming.  We also saw "the Miracle of Life Exhibit" sponsored by Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine.  The 330-pound butter sculptured cow and calf looked creamy smooth.
For more information about a specific case, consult your veterinarian.                   
The outside of a pet is good for the inside of a human.