Siberian Husky

Some dogs ask where you are going. The Siberian Husky has already decided. Eyes blue as glacier ice, tail curled, grin wide, it leans into the cold wind and waits for you to catch up.

The breed comes from northeastern Siberia, where the Chukchi people raised dogs to pull sleds across hundreds of miles of ice. They needed dogs that could run all day on little food. Endurance mattered more than speed, and the Husky has plenty of both.

In 1925 that endurance saved a town. Diphtheria was spreading in Nome, Alaska, and the medicine was 674 miles away. Teams of sled dogs relayed the serum through blizzards in about five and a half days. Togo ran the longest and hardest leg. Balto led the final team into town.

The look is as famous as the history. A thick double coat shrugs off winter. A tail curls like a plume. Those eyes may be blue, brown, or one of each, and every pair seems to be plotting something.

A Husky does not obey so much as negotiate. It sings instead of barking, digs under fences, and treats a closed gate as an opening offer. It needs miles of exercise and plenty of patience from you.

Give a Husky a job, a trail, and a cold morning, and it will give you everything. Joy, mostly. The kind that runs ahead and looks back to make sure you are coming.