Kid the Courageous
Discovery expedition steward Clarence Howard Hare owed his life to his favourite dog, Kid. During a howling snowstorm in 1902, Hare became separated from the rest of his sledging party. He eventually stumbled upon three of their dogs, including Kid. Overcome by drowsiness and fearing he would fall asleep and freeze to death, Hare kept moving. In his confusion, he fell down a slippery slope and succumbed to sleep.
When he awoke two days later, he found a mould in the ice created by Kid. Man and dog had slept sledge-dog style, curled up side-by-side and covered by an insulating layer of snow. Kid’s body heat had kept Hare alive. Known as Kid the Courageous, he died the following year. Robert Falcon Scott, the leader of the expedition, wrote about him with fondness:
He has pulled like a Trojan throughout, and his stout little heart bore him up till his legs failed beneath him, and he fell never to rise again.