After his sister Marissa was handed a balloon by a stranger, she was swept up into the sky, never to be seen again, and Marcel the Shell—denying reality—coped by saying, “Ohhhh, yeah. She’s traveling.” ¹


So it is with Laika the Space Dog.
 
 
 
We know that Soviet scientists sent her on a one-way mission to space. We know that she probably didn’t have enough breathable air to keep her alive by the time the temperature in her capsule turned deadly hot. We know that she couldn’t have survived her fiery fall to Earth. 
 
So we, too, cope. Like children, some prefer to believe Laika is still alive, that she’s “traveling” or that she’s sending telepathic messages to Earth.
 
I wonder how many of us know that in 2008, Marvel Comics writer Dan Abnett and artist Andy Lanning immortalized Laika with their creation of Cosmo, a fictional Soviet space dog directly inspired by Laika.
 
Cosmo was originally male but re-written as female. In addition to appearances in comics, cartoons and video games, she appeared in all of the Guardians of the Galaxy films but has a big speaking role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (voiced by Bulgarian actress, Maria Bakalova).
 
Unlike Laika, Cosmo became lost in space, where she was bombarded with mutating cosmic rays that imbued her with super-canine heightened senses, telepathy, telekinesis and the ability to create force fields and project blasts of energy. Cosmo also can talk with the aid of a translation collar (much as in the film, "Up" or like the one used by Shelby Dog in the late Steve Cash’s "Talking Kitty" videos²).

 
Although we all miss Laika, it’s good to know she’s still alive and well—in a way—as Cosmo.
 
¹ This event led the the Creation of “Marissa’s Law, according to
”Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Two." 

 
² Talking Kitty Cat 22

Talking Kitty Cat 23