Meanwhile, over at the local woodshop, the head carpenter had just finished making a small sled. He took it off the table and then moved onto the floor beside a man, a woman, and a small red-haired girl wearing a parka. The father of the little girl chuckled and smiled to her, "Okay, you can open your eyes now!"
The little girl moved her hands away from her eyes and gasped with delight when she saw the sled. She happily jumped and giggled as she went over to the sled, "I love these rudders! I love this brush plow! I love this sled!"
A red husky with brown eyes, who had a burgundy bandana around her neck, happily barked as the little girl said to her, "Jenna, Jenna! You're a lead dog! Okay, just a minute!"
The young girl tied her husky, Jenna, up to the front of her sled, and then Jenna looked ready to race.
"Come on! Mush!" the little girl happily exclaimed.
The girl's mother took a furry hat and placed it on top of the daughter's head as she said, "Then, you'll need… this!"
The little girl gasped with delight, "A real musher's hat! We're a real sled team, now! Mush!"
As the young girl and her dog left through the main door, the father chuckled to the carpenter, "Mr. Johanson, the sled is beautiful!"
"We're very grateful," the mother added with a smile.
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" the little girl cried with joy as she thanked her parents and the carpenter, "THANK YOU!"
"Rosy's grateful, too!" the girl's father smiled as he paid the carpenter.
"Ja, so I gather!" the carpenter replied in a Germanic or Scandinavian accent.
"Watch this!" Rosy called to her parents from outside.
"Coming, sweetheart!" the mother replied as she and her husband went towards the door.
"I dunno, honey," Rosy's father said as he and her mother left the shop, "I think maybe we should've gotten her the dollhouse!"
Just then, a gunshot went up in the air. "It's the one-mile marker!" Rosy exclaimed outside before she commanded her dog, "Mush, Jenna, mush! Let's win this race!" And with that, the red husky happily took her gleeful mistress by means of the new sled.
"I think she'll learn to like it," Rosy's mother told the father before kissing him on the cheek.
Rosy and Jenna soon arrived to the crowd of people watching the race, and Rosy told her dog, "Jenna, easy, girl! Whoa!"
Jenna slowed down and walked, just as two other dogs approached her. One was a small, lavender Pomeranian called Dixie, and the other was a larger, tan and brown Saluki named Sylvie. "Good morning, Jenna!" the Dixie greeted with a smile as she moved her head around to show her fancy collar, "Ought to be a great race, don't you think? Maybe even neck and neck!"
Sylvie sighed and said to Jenna in a bored tone, "Say something about her new collar before she gets whiplash!"
"Um, Dixie, what a pretty collar!" Jenna complimented as she looked at Dixie, "Is it new?"
"What? This old thing?" Dixie asked as she showed her collar some more, "Yeah." Her voice became dreamy as she asked, "Do you think, um, Steele will notice?"
Sylvie and Jenna both sighed, and Jenna told the Pomeranian, "I'm afraid the only way Steele notices anyone is if they're wearing a mirror!"
At that moment, a voice called out, "There' coming!"
Sure enough, Steele and his team came racing down the street, coming closer to the finish line. As Steele ran, all the female dogs watching gushed over him, and then the champion racer did a pose to show off.
Meanwhile, Balto and Qimmia stepped forward to have a closer look at the winning team, and they both looked to their left sides. Balto smiled to his human friend, "I think that's where we'll see… the… team." At the last few words, something in the crowd – or someone, to be more precise – caught his eyes.
"Balto, are you okay?" Qimmia asked with a confused look.
Balto didn't answer as he lovingly smiled at a familiar red husky standing beside her young mistress. "Beautiful," he sighed.
"What's beautiful?" Qimmia asked.
"Jenna!" Rosy's laughed as she played with her dog a bit.
Qimmia looked over and saw Jenna with her mistress. The Inupiat girl shook her head and said, "Balto, I wouldn't trust that dog if I were you."
"Why not?" Balto asked before he looked over to see the winning team arriving.
"Her owners probably show hatred for my people – and you," the girl answered with concern in her voice.
In the meantime, Rosy took her musher's hat off, and was going to wave as she called out, "Come on, Steele!" But then, a gust of wind blew her hat out of her hand! "Oh no!" the little girl gasped as she saw her new hat fly away until it landed in the middle of the street.
Jenna also saw her mistress's hat fall and gasped with shock. Sooner or later, the sled dogs would all run over Rosy's nice new hat! Rosy tried to run over to get her hat back, but Jenna held her back by the coat sleeve.
Balto and Qimmia also saw the hat in the street, and Balto said to Qimmia with determination, "I've got to retrieve that little girl's hat!"
"Balto, no!" Qimmia warned him as the team of sled dogs ran past them, "There's nothing we can do!"
But the wolf-dog didn't listen as he hatched an idea; his true intention of retrieving Rosy's hat was to impress Jenna. So, he sprung away with determination into the street, following the sled team!
Qimmia looked over and gasped with fear as she saw her beloved companion run into the street. "BALTO, COME BACK!" she cried.
Some men in the crowd also saw Balto in the street, and said things like, "It's that stray dog!"
"He'll ruin the race!"
"Where's his so-called Eskimo mistress?"
Boris, meanwhile, managed to squeeze through the crowd and peeked himself beside a man's boot to watch what was going on. When he saw Balto running alongside Steele and his team, the Russian goose screamed with terror!
As Balto ran alongside the sled team, Steele glared at him as he ran to reach the finish line, "Hey! Outta my way, Lobo!"
Balto ignored him as he focused on reaching Rosy's hat.
In the crowd, Boris covered his face with his wings, while Qimmia hollered out, "BALTO, NO! STOP!"
Steele leaned over and snapped his jaws at the wolf-dog, making Jenna gasp as she saw the scene. But Balto avoided getting hurt as he managed to run ahead of Steele, and then grab Rosy's hat in the nick of time! He then ran off to the side just as Steele and his team ran past across the finish line, making the whole crowd cheer.
"HEY!" Boris called to Balto with a frown, "When will you learn to stay on the sidelines?!" The only answer he got was a brush of snow hitting him in the face upon impact of the sled moving past him. Boris gave an annoyed look as he wiped and spat the snow away.
Qimmia, on the other hand, did a face palm and muttered angrily to herself, "A fine guardian I turned out to be for Balto! He's growing rebellious, even for my standards. I'm gonna have to speak to him. I thought I told him a million times that white people and their dogs hate us!"