He felt more secure and loved by the dogs than he ever had among people- the dogs shared their food and protected him. He started following a stray dog around, and then lived with the pack of strays in a den under a building. He wanted to return the puppies to their mother. The other children just saw the puppies as items to be used in their constant desperation for resources, but our boy felt drawn to the dogs instead. He was delighted when one day another boy took him to grab some puppies from an empty building- as they were much more likely to get handouts if accompanied by a dog. This boy didn’t like the fighting and abuse, and found himself often watching dogs that he saw scavenging around the city. The other kids fought, older and stronger ones took advantage of the weak, many drank vodka or sniffed glue. He fell in with other street children at first, begging alongside them but reluctant to steal. The boy in this story was one of them- only five when his mother disappeared. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, hundreds of abandoned children lived on the streets in Moscow.
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