This article appeared on FT.com this weekend. My uncle, who is currently in Eastern Europe on business, forwarded it to me. I have written a post on the Moscow subway dogs several months ago.
Andrei Poyarkov is a wolf biologistwho has gone from studying the wild and very hard to observe forms of Canis lupus to studying the more benign and cosmopolitan subspecies that we call the street dog.
The street dogs of Moscow have adapted to the urban life very well. Their gentle and tolerant natures and their ability to learn from people have allowed them to do live in a bustling metropolitan area.
Most American dogs don’t get this freedom. Where I live domestic dogs can roam in rural areas, provided the owners live far enough away from the “hard road.”
This situation actually produces dogs that 1. have a lot sense because they get to experience lots of things and 2. are very well-socialized with people and other dogs.
Dogs need a certain amount of freedom and choice in their lives. If you want to read a good book that deals with these issues (from a scientific as well as literary perspective), check out Merle’s Door.
Metropolitan dogs are wonderful.
An old man, who used to work as diplomat in Moscow and now is retired with his wife and a golden retriever, told me about one peculiar dog. That dog entered into the same tube as the man, every morning and from his own, certain station. Then, after travelling past many stations, the dog left the ride at the same stop as our man did. He watched the dog going to the stairways and disappering in the crowd.
The man told me they met that way a long time, for a couple of years or even more.
Ps. I’m about half a way reading that book.