you know he did.

He saved Rosy's hat and Rosy actually started to see through all the prejudice, and tried to be nice to him, but her father ran over and kicked snow at him, afraid that he might bite her or something. Balto slunk off then, convinced that no one would ever like him. I felt so sorry for him, I tried to follow him, but Rosy pulled me back. I did something then that I’d never done. I snuck away from Rosy. I had to talk to Balto. I couldn’t find him anywhere. I could hear Rosy calling me already, and I knew I didn’t have much time until they’d find me. I stepped out of the alley and Balto almost ran into me. I don’t know who was more surprised, me or him. He didn’t say a whole lot, just kind of stuttered around. That was the first time I think I realized that he liked me. I heard Rosy’s father join in then. I turned my head to see if they were coming, and they weren’t. When I turned around Balto was gone, he’d run away. I didn’t know where he’d gone. I smelled the air, trying to get his scent, I really wanted to talk to him. To tell him that he had a friend. I didn’t care about what the other dogs thought now. I saw someone so lost in Balto… if I had to be unpopular for him to have a friend, then so be it.

I ran back to Rosy and her family then, thinking about the way Balto had acted around me. I didn’t know what to think, I mean he was nice and all… but I didn’t really know him that well.

That night Rosy started coughing, her parents took her to the hospital. She was really sick, I could tell. She was really hot and coughed a lot.

I was watching her through the window, when Balto showed up. I don’t even remember what he said to me, I was too involved in thinking about what was going to happen to Rosy. I told him about her being sick and he told me he knew a way to find out what was up. He led me to a little room underneath the hospital. I was a little wary of going in there, but Balto said that dogs traveled from all over to get to this spot. I didn’t really know why, it was so dark and dreary under there. But then Balto did the first of many things that would surprise me about him. For someone who should have been so despondent, so miserable, he was extremely optimistic. He showed me how to make a recreation of the northern lights, using broken bottles and the light from the room above us. It was so beautiful, and I said so, he agreed, then I noticed he wasn’t looking at the lights… what could have been a bit of an awkward situation was avoided, when the light shut off and the doctor walked out of the room. We followed him under the floor. He told Rosy’s parents that she had diphtheria, and he was out of medicine for it, seems the whole town was getting it. Well I was extremely upset..”

Blaize interrupted his mother at this point.

“What’s diphtheria?”

“It’s a very deadly disease that humans get sometimes, if it’s not treated, they’ll die,” Jenna said.

“Did Rosy die mom?” Jadze asked.

“Well let me finish the story, and you’ll find out.” Jenna replied.

“Back to the story. I was upset, I’d heard about diphtheria. I knew it wasn’t good. Balto said he was sorry, that he shouldn’t have taken me down there, but I told him I liked knowing what was going on better than just guessing.

Of all the times, Steele showed up then, wanting me to share some sausages with him. Balto looked a little angry at his intrusion and lack of concern for me. But I didn’t want Balto to get hurt, and I knew he’d never win a one on one with Steele, so I lured him over to the hot boiler, and he unknowingly backed right into it. Me and Balto ran then, but Steele caught up with us. He was about to start a fight with Balto, when we heard voices coming, and a light. Balto started to run away, but Steele threw the sausages at him, making him trip and fall. The light fell on him, and Rosy’s dad saw the sausages, apparently Steele had stolen them. Balto got framed for it of course, I tried to follow him, to talk to him, but Rosy’s dad grabbed my bandanna and hauled me back.

That night the doctor put up a quarantine sign on the door to the hospital. I didn’t leave the hospital. I heard from some of the other dogs, that all the methods of transportation available to the humans, were shut down, because of the horrible storm that had rolled in, except us dogs. There would be a race tomorrow to select the fastest dogs for the team that would travel to Nenanna to meet the train with the meds for the town. I just hoped that they would make it through, Rosy was getting worse with each hour. I was really afraid for her. They wouldn’t let me in the hospital, so I stayed outside her window.

The next day they had the race. Just as I’d feared, my popular friends had heard of my seeing Balto. They expected me to deny it, but I didn’t, after all, if they judged people that way, I didn’t need ‘em. Steele was the glory hound he always was, wanting to lead the team just for the recognition he would get from it. He wasn’t even thinking of the people, he disgusted me.

When the gun sounded to start the race, I was surprised to see Balto running against them. The other dogs knocked Balto off the track, and he went out on the ice, but he kept going, using the boats that were in the frozen harbor to get in front of all of them and win. I was so happy for him, I went to congratulate him. I thought that maybe if he did something like this, maybe the other dogs would see him for who he really was, the Balto I knew. But as I approached I saw Steele step on Balto’s paw. He growled and the musher pulled back. He said something about not being able to trust him, and took Steele instead. Balto just started to walk off, rejected once again. I tried to follow him again, but he just turned and told me to stay away from him cause he might turn on me. Then he walked away. I just watched him, I didn’t know what to do. I went back to the hospital.

A few days later I heard that the sled team, and the medicine was lost. The storm had apparently claimed them. The humans were working to get another shipment…but they knew it was going to be too late by then.

I knew how bad it must be when Rosy’s dad came and got me and they let me into the hospital. Rosy was so weak, that she couldn’t even sit up. I just layed at the foot of her bed and comforted her as best I could.

A few hours later Rosy’s dad put me back outside. I returned to my vigil at the window. This time I picked up a familiar scent, it was Balto. Then I noticed paw prints in the snow leading away from the window, I decided to follow them.

They led me a long ways out into the forests surrounding Nome. Balto was so smart, he was marking the trail back by scratching pieces of bark off of the trees. I thought that I was getting close, when I heard growling, it was him. I ran toward the sound. I found him on the ground, a huge grizzly stood over him, pushing him into the snow. I don’t know why I did what I did next, or at least I didn’t then, I do now. I’d never been in a fight before, heck I’d only seen one, but I ran at that bear and attacked it.”

“You did mom?” Jadze asked.

Jenna nodded.

`“It was kind of a stupid thing to do, I could have been killed, but… I wasn’t thinking very clearly.

“Well I think it’s cool,” Blaize said.

“Is that when you realized that you liked dad?” Jadze asked.

This comment surprised Jenna a little.

“Well… uh.. yeah, I guess, actually it wasn’t quite yet, that I realized that, it came later, but.. yeah that’s the beginning of it I suppose. How would you come up with something like that?”

Jadze rolled her eyes.

“Mom please, I’m a girl too.”

Jenna laughed.

“Yeah I guess so”

Blaize spoke up then.

“So what happened, did you win?”

“Well not exactly,” Jenna said, “the bear threw me off several times, then Balto was back up, and started trying to fight it off. The last time it had thrown me, kind of knocked the wind out of me, and I was a little slow to rejoin the fight.

By the time that I’d gotten back up, Balto had fought the bear down to a frozen lake down the hill. I watched as the bear plunged through the ice, and unable to swim, it sunk.

I ran down to him, but the ice cracked and he slid into the water. The piece of ice that he was on flipped over, sealing him under the ice. I could see him under the ice, he was drowning, and I felt so helpless. He was only about three inches from me, but he might as well have been miles. Then some polar bear friends of his jumped in and saved him. I thought he was dead when they drug him up out of the water. But he came around soon enough. He was very cold. We decided that we’d have to take a different way, as one of the passes was closed because of the storm. We got up to go, and I couldn’t walk, apparently when the bear had thrown me I hurt my leg. Balto told his friends to take me back to Nome and he continued on alone. I gave him my bandanna, I don’t really know why, it wasn’t going to keep him warm or anything… but it just seemed like the thing to do.

His friends took me back to Nome and I resumed my post at Rosy’s window, a little angry that I couldn’t help. One night, I decided to go to the old mill.

She paused here.

“You guys haven’t been there, but you will, probably as soon as your father gets back. We have some friends that live there, and it’s just a place for us dogs to hang out and hear the latest