Animals

The animals here seem to have an autonomous society of their own, dogs in particular. (You can read this section in a British accent if you want so as to simulate a Planet Earth special). There are two distinct strata in Ukrainian canine-dom. There are domesticated pets, like Jack, my Ukrainian host family’s pet. And there are the street rovers. Domesticated pets seem to be pretty much the same throughout the world. It is the street rovers that I will enumerate on.


(Jack)
The street rovers live in a world of their own, wandering between different hotspots of the town: from the square to any residential street. They live off the scraps that people throw them and whatever they find from scavenging. They come into regular contact with the homo-sapien. At any time of the day one can spot a canine in respite on a patch of grass or at the local bus stop, waiting to be fed. The dogs, free from the claims of ownership and animal control, live in a care-free and idealistically Bohemian paradigm.
But it’s not without its perils. Dogs, as friendly as they can be, still live in a society. And like all societies it has its vices. Sitting on a park bench in the square, my cluster mates and I observed from a distance the playing out of this autocracy. A pack of dogs can have an alpha male at any moment, standing out among its cohorts, yet only to disband in a moment’s notice. And there are some dogs that for one reason or another disgruntle the pack, which causes a scene.
Walking back from a training session once, I witnessed this firsthand. A pack of dogs notice an enemy in its territory and quickly before my eyes is a dogfight breaking out. In a moment’s notice, there is the outcast on the ground in a cloud of dust as dogs fly in from all directions. This is commonplace, especially at night right when I’m trying to sleep.

Livestock roam freely in Ukraine and it’s not an uncommon site to see a goat tied to a fence post or being walked down the main street by an old man as we would dogs in the US. Ducks waddle about in groups, crossing streets together. Chickens and roosters dally about and scatter in fear (like foghorn leghorn) when a human crosses its path. The roosters, I want to choke. They crow at all hours of the day, sometimes every 5-10 seconds. They especially love to do this when I decide to take a nap. And there are flies everywhere.