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Featured Breed - Siberian Husky
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
The Siberian Husky is said to be one of the oldest dog breeds in existence, developed along the coastal region of the east-Siberian peninsula by an Inuit tribe called the Chukchi. The breed served as an invaluable tool and asset to the tribe, who utilized the hunting and sledding skills of the breed and, and in turn, shaped the very foundation on which the breed is founded on today.
The breed appears in a thick, double coat in a variety of colors and patterns, ranging from black and white (most common), to gray and white, blond, piebald spotted, and more. White accents are standard on the tip of the tail, face, legs, and paws, provide the breed their rather "wolf-like" appearance. The functionality of the Siberian's coat doesn't stop with just appearances, however. Both form and function have been satisfied in this trademark attribute, which allows these dogs the ability to withstand sub-zero temperatures as low as minus 76°F below!
Knowledge of the breed quickly spread following its 1908 admission in the All-Alaska Sweepstakes, a popular dogsled competition at the time which spanned a 408 mile-long stretch separating Nome and Candle, Alaska.
The breed was anything but well received. They were noticeably smaller than the competition's defending champion titleholder, the Alaskan Malamute, and were quickly deemed "Siberian Rats" by skeptical locals and racing enthusiasts of the area.
By the year 1925, the breed had displaced the diminutive nickname.
When an epidemic of diphtheria struck the city of Nome, Alaska, the Siberian's nobility was put to the test. Several teams of dogs rose to the occasion by completing a series of "serum runs" in which vital antitoxins were delivered.
This heroic effort is commemorated each year with a race called the Iditarod, in which more than 800 dogs took-place in just last year. Organized in 1966 by Dorothy Page and Joe Redington Sr. to pay tribute to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs who prevailed against Arctic blizzards and icy, perilous terrain that exists between the 600-mile-span between Nenana and Nome, Alaska. The Iditarod race as we know it today has changed little since this time, and appeared as the basis for Universal Picture's 1995 animated release Balto.