Laika:
Although being the first animal to orbit the earth is quite an honor, it is also quite a stretch of miss-reporting to say that Laika, who was a dog by the way, "unfortunately died during the flight". That is how the newspapers in 1957 reported this historic flight. In fact, if you google "Laika", there are still some reports that headline the flight in this way.
But upon further investigation, one would discover that Laika the dog was a stray mutt living in the streets of Moscow. She was free as a bird and wandering through each day searching for scraps of food in all her favorite spots. She was a bit Husky, maybe a bit Terrier, and a bit of who knows what else. But on a fateful day in 1957, she was captured by a dog catcher, and delivered to the Russian Space Agency. There, she was held in a cage that secured her body, legs, head and mouth so that she couldn't move. Yup, Laika was being prepared for her upcoming death in space. She was just a stray mutt, so nobody really cared about her. And this was training for her eventual flight into hell.....
Yes, the most famous dog in history, Laika (Little Curly), was strapped into a dog vice so she couldn't move, placed inside a space capsule with one meal (so they say), a few days of oxygen and NO CHANCE of ever returning alive. You see, the Russians had made no plans of returning the capsule to earth...... well, except as a fiery ball of molten metal over the ocean. Laika had surgery days before the flight to install sensors that would tell of her status in the confines of Space. She was then blasted into the heavens, where she made history as the first dog, and first animal, to orbit the earth.
Years later, the truth was revealed as to Laika's fate. It seems that the Russians, in their haste to get the rocket launched, didn't put enough heat shields on the capsule. The temperatures on the interior of the capsule rose to levels well beyond what the terrified little pooch could endure. It was calculated that she made it once, maybe twice around the earth before she was cooked to death....
Over the years of humanity's existence on earth, millions, billions, maybe trillions of animals have died at our hand. Some for us to eat. Some for us to make war. Some for us to build things. Some for god worship. Some so we could build houses or plant fields of corn. Some just for sport because we don't have anything better to do. Some just because were assholes!
With this in mind, I suppose the snuffing out of one helpless dog over 60 years ago is insignificant!
But not to me.....
Before I wrote a song for poor Laika, I wanted to understand how it must have felt for the poor little pooch once she was strapped into her Russian death chamber. So I closed my eyes and placed myself inside that capsule! Suddenly, I was unable to move my legs, my arms, my head. The only thing I could do was squirm, and even that was hard..... The roar of the rockets was deafening, the G force on my body was horrifying. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to pass out. I wanted to get out of this place, this prison, this HELL. But I couldn't. Everything was shaking! The roar was so loud that my eardrums burst with searing pain, and my heart raced in futile agony. I was screaming..... Then, my body began to get hot, and then it was so hot it began to hurt, then I screamed some more, and it got hotter and my skin began to boil, and I screamed and screamed and screamed.......
Well, I can't change the past. But I wanted to write a song as a tribute to this famous dog and her ill fate of luck, being captured by that damn dog catcher, and eventually becoming one of the greatest victim's of animal abuse in modern history. I suppose I could have used all sorts of evil sounds and Russian Czar background licks. But instead, I wanted to visit Laika before her horrific demise. I wanted to put her back on the streets, wandering from garbage can to garbage can - free and happy, with her tongue hanging out and her nose in the air......