Suka was born to her proud parents Balto and Jenna on the 6th of July, 1926, and named Nunivak. Her siblings in the same litter were Aleu, Kodiak, Saba, Dingo and Umimak. Nunivak was a dark red color with a  light reddish-gray underside. She had yellow eyes and blue irises, a dark red nose bridge and pretty much the same stature as Balto. Her tail was a solid red. Kodiak, Saba and Dingo all resembled Jenna in markings. Umimak was quite different. He had scarlet fur, a cream underside, brown and an unusual marking on his face. Umimak had a cream muzzle with a cream line of fur running down to her underside. He certainly was a stand-out pup, along with Aleu, who was brown like her father, but rather frettish. Balto often favoured Aleu over the others. She was the runt of the litter, and rather weak. Suka could never understand why he preferred her.

August came and the pups were seven weeks old. Boris was looking after them and decided there was no harm in letting them out to play for a bit. Kodi, Saba and Dingo raced with each other, Kodi usually winning. Aleu played with Umimak, and then ran off often to play with Dingo. Nunivak didn’t like Aleu and decided to get away from her and have some fun. Boris didn’t notice the adventurous young pup wander off away from Nome.

Nunivak was a pretty long way from Nome for a pup. She was finally alone and away from that horrible racket her sister always made. She turned back to look at Nome. It was a long way away, it seemed… she turned around to find herself face to face with an older brown pup.
“Hey!” the pup said. “My name’s Olepi. Wanna play?”
“Sure! My name’s Nunivak!” Nunivak replied.
“Nunivak? After the island? That’s pretty cool!” Olepi said. They ran around and practised pouncing for a bit, Olepi the better pouncer.
“Olepi,” Nunivak said, noticing something odd about this pup. “Why is your fur all fuzzy? It’s supposed to be nice and sleek, isn’t it?” Olepi gave her an odd look.
“No! It’s meant to be like this! All wolves have this fur! Where have you been?” Olepi asked, eyes shining in the sunlight…yellow and blue eyes?! Nunivak thought. Dad and Aleu had those sort of eyes.
“You’re… a wolf?” Nunivak asked.
“Well yeah! Yellow eyes, wild fur, wolfish build,” Olepi explained. “Aren’t you a wolf?”
“No, not me,” Nunivak said, bowing her head.
“You have to be a wolf! You’ve got the eyes, the build, the whole lot!”
“But my parents aren’t wolves,” Nunivak said. “They’re huskies.”
“Oh no!” Olepi cried. “So. You’re a husky pup… a dog.”
“Yeah...” Nunivak said. Olepi paused.
“My mom and dad told me not to play with dog pups.”
“And my mom told me not to play with wolf pups, really…” Nunivak said. This was the end of their meeting, it seemed. But Olepi smiled.
“But you don’t seem the bad type. You’re nice,” Olepi observed. “I’ll play with you anyway.”
“Thanks! This’ll be fun!” Nunivak said, jumping about. “But what do you mean by the bad type of dogs?”
“The ones that want to hurt us. They call them hunting dogs. They look for us and try to… kill us,” Olepi whispered. “I just hope there aren’t any around here, or they might go for me.”
“But why do they do that?”
“They think we’re always attacking them, when we’re not. They call us something funny… something like wild beasts. I think that’s supposed to be used as an insult though,” Olepi explained.
“That’s really mean,” Nunivak said.
“But to be wild is to be free. You can play all the time, you get food from the older wolves, and best of all you can run free without those weird harness things on you and have the wind blow through your fur,” Olepi happily said. “My favorite part  is the practising pouncing, since I wanna be a good hunter. We have to hunt our food in the wild. My mom says I’ll be a great hunter because it’s in my name. Olepi means hunter in Dakota,” Olepi further explained.
“I wanna be wild and free…” Nunivak muttered.
“Nunivak!” a familiar voice called. A brown figure was running towards them. It was Balto.
“Uh oh...” Nunivak said.
“Nuni, what are you doing? You had me seriously worried. And who’s this young pup you’re playing with?” Balto asked.
“This is my friend Olepi, Daddy. She’s a wolf, how cool is that?” Nunivak asked, tail wagging, forgetting her mother's advice. Olepi smiled. Nunivak suddenly remembered her mother's warning. She shouldn’t have said Olepi was a wolf…
“Hello!” Olepi brightly said. “What’s your name?” Balto was concerned. His daughter was already fraternizing with wolves… hopefully she would turn out normal like Aleu. He was about to say something when a brown, slender wolf jumped from a tall rock above them.
“Olepi!” the wolf cried. “Never do that again, I was so worried.” This wolf was obviously Olepi’s mother. Olepi ran towards her, smiling.
“Mom, I want you to meet Nunivak and her dad. They’re both huskies, but they’re not the hunting ones, they’re really nice and friendly!” Olepi said, trying to convince her mother. Olepi beamed at her new friend, but her mother did not. She was not convinced. The rules were clear with wolf and dog communication. Their pups were not to associate with each other at all costs. It was the same for hybrids. Balto knew this very well, as did Olepi’s mother.
“Come, Olepi,” she said. “We’re going back to the clan.”
“But Mom, I just met them!” Olepi protested.
“You know the rule, no dog friends, now come on,” her mother said, picking Olepi up by the scruff of her neck. There would be no more talking between the hybrids and the wolves. Olepi’s mother nodded to Balto, suggesting he go with Nunivak before other less sparing wolves came along. Balto got the message and picked up Nunivak too. The pups bade their goodbyes quietly. They would miss playing with each other.

Nunivak was eight weeks old when she was put in a box with her other siblings to be given away to potential owners. Aleu was wanting to play with all of her siblings, and burst out with a howl.
"Aleu, honey, please don't do that. The humans don't like it," Jenna explained.
"But I'm excited!" Aleu protested.
"I'm excited too! I can't wait to get a human - and chew on their socks!" he said, prancing around happily. Aleu pounced on Dingo in retaliation. Nunivak just watched the world go by as usual, peering out of the box, wondering what was out there for her.
“Papa, are you gonna get a human too?” Saba asked. Balto winked at Jenna.
“Nah. See, humans like cute little puppies like you, not old grizzly grown-ups like me,” he replied.
“What about you, Mom? Are you getting a different human?” Dingo asked.
“No, I’m staying with Rosie,” Jenna said. “You’ll get someone nice like her though, I’m sure.”
“Are humans nice to dogs?” Kodi asked.
“Yes, of course,” Balto responded. “We wouldn’t give you away to a mean human, would we?” A young boy came up to the box to look at the puppies. Aleu tried to grab his attention by doing a paw-stand but instead fell over.
“Show off,” muttered Nunivak. The boy took no notice of Aleu, but instead focused on Dingo and Saba. He talked to his parents about which pup he should choose. He went to talk with Rosie about taking one of them, who was on the patio near the pups’ box. After a while he came back.
“I like... this one!” he said, pointing at Saba.
“Oh, goody! I get picked first!” Saba said, excitedly jumping about.
“Well, goodbye Saba,” Balto said, smiling.
“Bye Mom and Dad! Bye everyone!” Saba said as she was picked up.
“Bye!” the pups called, not simultaneously though.
“I know that boy, he’ll be a good human for Saba,” Jenna assured Balto, as Saba was carried away to her new home. It wasn’t long before another human came along, this one a grown man, and looked at the pups. After talking with Rosie he picked Umimak. He held him up in the light.
“Hmmm… I think I’ll call you… Dakota,” the man said.
“Goodbye, Umimak,” Jenna said.
“Bye Umi!” Saba, Kodi and Aleu called as he was picked up.
“Bye Umimak!” Nunivak called. Umimak half smiled and was carried away. It was a while before the next human came. This one was a girl, but not a young girl and not an adult. She took a look at the puppies and walked over to discuss her choice with Rosie.
“Hey, she isn’t a pup or a grown-up!” Dingo said to Balto, confused. Jenna laughed.
“That girl’s what people call a teenager. She’s becoming a grown-up. By the looks of her, she’s nearly there, too,” Balto explained.
“Is Rosie a teenager?” Kodi asked.
“No, but she will be in a few years. Teenage girls like her love puppies, so she’ll treat you very well,” Jenna replied. The girl came back and all of the remaining puppies put on their cutest faces, Aleu’s being the least cute and looking more like her brain was half switched on.
“I think I’ll choose… you,” the girl said, pointing at Nunivak. Nunivak was very happy about her new human.
“Goodbye, Nunivak,” Balto said.
“Don’t claw on her furniture!” Jenna said.
“Bye Nuni!” Kodi and Saba called. Aleu howled her goodbye. Nunivak was not pleased with Aleu’s send-off. The girl picked Nunivak up.
“Goodbye everyone!” she called, as she was carried away to her human’s house… and her new home.

They reached the human’s house a while later. The girl opened the door and put Nunivak down. It was a lot warmer in here than outside, she thought, as the girl closed the door and took her shoes off. Upon closer inspection, Nunivak saw that this human had black hair tied back into a ponytail and friendly emerald green eyes. She bent down to have a closer look at Nunivak.
“My name’s Annie, and I’m your new owner! But what’s your name?” she asked, tilting her head at the little pup. “I think it should be… Suka! You like it?” Annie asked. Suka barked. She liked her name a lot. Annie smiled.
“I thought would.”