We Are Family

Prologue

Dingo looked around himself and smiled. The small Alaskan town of Nome was buzzing with excitement. Everyone knew why, of course: Dingo’s dad, Balto, along with his brother, Kodi, and a few other dogs were preparing for a huge sled dog team race. Balto and Kodi were the two most famous sled dogs in the land of Alaska, not to mention the fastest.

Dingo’s thoughts were interrupted by a warm voice. “Dingo, you’re going to miss the race!” the voice called to him from not far away. “Don’t you want to wish Dad and Kodi good luck?”

Dingo recognized his sister Saba walking toward him and grinned. “Okay, okay, I’m coming,” he said. Then he added with a sneer, “You know, you remind me of mom. You’re both slave-drivers!” He rolled around in the snow, laughing hysterically.

“Ha, ha, ha,” Saba said, rolling her eyes. Apparently, she hadn’t enjoyed the little joke as much as her brother. “Come on, Ding-dong!”

Dingo got off of the ground and approached his sister. “Oh, you’re going to pay for saying that!” he said, faking an angry look on his face. Then he pounced on his sister and knocked her over. This time they were both rolling around on the ground and laughing.

The two dogs were playfully fighting with each other until they heard a gunshot. Saba wiggled out of her brother’s grasp and gasped. “Way to go, Ding-dong,” she said, pretending to be mad at him. “Now we missed the start of the race!”

Before Saba could figure out what was happening, her brother had grabbed her and was running toward the huge crowd at the starting line. “We haven’t missed it yet!” he shouted, panting.

Dingo weaved through the crowd at a rapid pace, with Saba close behind. When he had got past the massive amount of people and animals, he started running after the sled dog teams. Saba let go of him. “What are you doing?” she screamed. “Get off of the track! Are you crazy?”

“Nah,” Dingo called over his shoulder. “I’m not crazy. I just want to wish Dad and Kodi good luck!”

As she stood watching her brother run into the distance, Saba shook her head. “My brother has completely lost it,” she muttered.

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Dingo panted hard. He had almost caught up to the sled dogs now. There were two teams: one lead by Balto, and the other by Kodi. Right now, Kodi’s team was in the lead.

Dingo sprinted faster. Now he was even with the last dog on Balto’s team. Pretty soon he began to gain on the team until he was alongside his father.

Balto was definitely surprised. “What are you doing here, Dingo?” he yelled. “You need to get back with your family!”

Dingo smiled as he kept an even pace with his father. “I just wanted to wish you good luck, Dad!” he shouted. “Bye, I’ll see you in a few days!” Dingo waved to his dad, and then picked up speed to catch up with Kodi.

Kodi grinned when he saw his brother. “Sorry, Dingo, but it’s kind of late to join the team now!” he yelled with a smile. “Wow, you can run pretty fast!”

“Hey, Kodi!” Dingo shouted back to his brother. “No, I don’t want to join your team”-(he laughed at this point)-“I just wanted to say good luck! I’ll see you in a few days when the race is over!” Then Dingo swerved to the left to get off of the racetrack. He caught his breath as he watched the two dog teams sprint past.

A few minutes after the last dog had passed out of view, Dingo got up again and ran home. Halfway to his destination, he saw Saba running out to meet him.

“You are such an idiot!” she said playfully. “Why did you even think you could catch up to two of the fastest sled dog teams in the world?”

Dingo shrugged. “I don’t know, but I did,” he said. “I just wanted to say goodbye to Dad and Kodi. You got a problem with that?” he added, pushing his sister playfully.

Saba returned her brother’s little shove. “No,” she said, smiling.

The brother and sister walked back to Nome in silence. Saba tried to think of something to say, but she was enjoying the peaceful quietness of the Alaskan frontier.

Saba dug her nose into the soft hair on Dingo’s back. His fur was nice and smooth.

Saba didn’t know what she would ever do without her brother. They were more than just siblings. If she ever lost him, she would be completely devastated.

Little did she know what was going to happen to her and her brother in the next few days…

Chapter 1

Dingo and Saba ran into Jenna’s home and shook themselves dry. Jenna, who was lying by the fire, didn’t really look happy to see her son and daughter fling snow around the nice, warm room. “Where have you been?” she asked worriedly. “The race began an hour ago. I was so worried about you two!”

Dingo smiled and put an arm around his sister’s neck. “Aw, don’t worry, Mom,” he said. “You know that you don’t have to worry about little Saba getting in trouble when I’m around.”

Saba escaped from her brother’s grip and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure,” she said. “You’re so responsible. Like when you ran into Rosie two days ago and knocked her over.”

“What did you do?” Jenna said, shocked.

Dingo stepped hard on his sister’s front paw. “Oh, nothing,” he said.

Jenna rolled her eyes. “Well, just tell me before you sneak away like that next time, okay?” she said. Dingo and Saba nodded.

“Mom, I can take care of Saba,” Dingo said. “Don’t worry about it! Mom, we’re already five months old. We can take care of ourselves now.”

“Dingo, stop acting like you’re responsible for me,” Saba said. “You’re only nine minutes older than I am.”

“Oh, come on, Saba,” Dingo said. “You have to admit it. You would be dead by now if it wasn’t for me!”

Saba knew that her brother was right. She was always getting into bad situations, and her brother had saved her each time. Now she was stuck. “Uh…hey, Dingo, want to go to the boiler room?” she asked, hoping to change the subject.

Dingo and Jenna smiled at each other. Saba just didn’t want to admit that she needed her brother so much. “Sure, I’ll go,” said Dingo. “I’ll see you later, Mom.”

“Bye, Mom!” Saba cried out as she ran out of the door with her brother close behind. As soon as they were both outside, she turned to her brother and said, “Let’s race!”

The two dogs ran as fast as they could toward the boiler room. Dingo was pulling ahead of his sister, but then he came to a halting stop. Saba saw her brother stop and stopped herself. ‘What’s wrong?’ she thought.

“Dingo! Here, boy!” a voice was shouting. Dingo ran to his owner and wagged his tail. “I have some big news for you, boy,” his owner said, patting him on the head.

Dingo started to follow his owner back to his home. He turned around and shrugged at Saba. She shrugged back.

Saba turned around and kept walking. “I guess I’ll just have to go to the boiler room by myself today,” she thought out loud.

Suddenly Saba felt depressed. When Dingo had been right next to her, everything in the world looked beautiful. Now everything was dark and dreary.

Saba entered the boiler room. She saw another dog in there. The dog was a husky; he looked kind of like Dingo. Usually, Saba would introduce herself to the new dog in town, but she didn’t feel in the mood at that time.

Saba sighed. She hoped that her brother would come back soon.

Chapter 2

Dingo looked up at his owner as they were walking back to his home. The ten year old boy looked back down at his dog and shrugged. “Mom and Dad told me to get you,” he said. “I wonder what the big news is.”

Dingo kept thinking about his owner. The boy had owned him for about three months, which was most of Dingo’s entire lifetime. They had been inseparable, just like how he was with Saba. He couldn’t imagine life without the boy.

Soon Dingo and his owner had arrived back home. “Jason, we’re in here,” the boy’s father called from the kitchen.

Jason and Dingo walked into the kitchen, where Jason’s parents were sitting around the table. “Please, sit down,” his mom said. Jason pulled out a chair and sat on it. Dingo sat on the floor right next to him.

“Jason, I don’t know how to tell you this,” his father said. “It’s about Dingo.”

Dingo’s ears perked up at the mention of his name. He wagged his tail.

“Do you remember that race earlier today?” Jason’s dad asked. Jason nodded. “Well, there was a man named Ray Warren there. He lives in