“I Laika your post...”
Nice. But poor thing didn’t have a heat shield on the capsule, so she burned up on re-entry. Not a surprise, simply the Russians didn’t have the shield yet ready to fly, but everything else was ready.
Another story was regarding a dog that did make it back to Earth alive. The moment they unstrapped the dog, he ran for the hills...that was the last they saw of him.
IIRC, she was euthanized in orbit.