Dogs are very humble creatures. They have been one of our most loyal friends for generations and help us with many daily tasks. Many people say that their dogs are their best friends and that they are the best companions you can have if you are thinking of a pet.

But, how reliable are they when put at risk? To find this out we are going to look at a popular story about a three-year-old girl named Karina Chikitova who, after tailing her father into the woods of Sakha in Siberia, lost her way and found herself completely stranded in the middle of a bear and wolf infested woods. Luckily for her her trusty puppy, Nadia, had tagged along to keep her company. For many three year olds this would mean the end, but not Karina. The young girl made herself a bed in the long grass to keep warm. Furthemrore, with Sakha being Siberia’s coldest region, the loyal puppy kept her warm during the freezing nights.

Karina lived in a very remote village, and it took her mother 4 days to contact her father only to discover that Karina was missing. She ended up surviving for a while on wild berries and drinking river water. Eventually, her puppy abandoned her, but not in the careless way you might think. Nadia ended up finding her way back to the village, allowing rescuers to retrace her paw prints to where Karina had been last. She was finally saved after 11 days of surviving in the wild. Luckily, she only suffered a few mosquito bites and small scratches, and she had no serious health issues afterwards.

If this isn’t convincing enough to say that dogs can definitely live up to the title as “man’s best friend”, I don’t know what is. To show this nowadays there are many film adaptations based on true stories expressing the loyalty and honour a dog can have. I don’t know about you, but I get sadder about a dog’s death in a movie than a humans’; could this be because of our understanding of how innocent and kind these creatures really are?

Of course, everyone has their own opinion about whether a dog is really man’s best friend, but I still hope that this amazing story had an impact on your views of these amazing creatures.