The Moscow Dogs

"the silence will begin full of dogs" —Julio Cortázar

I've been reading articles on the web about this phenomenon in Moscow. Apparently there is a steady population of stray dogs in Moscow who have evolved several different survival strategies. Some primarily hunt mice and other animals, some scavenge for food in dumpsters. But there is one group of strays in particular who have learned how to navigate the city. Every day they commute into the city via the subway. They know when to get on and when to get off the trains, moving alongside humans, and once in the city they know how to cross the street by waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green. They've also developed a very intuitive sense of who to beg for food and who to leave alone. Here is a good story about it (but the first part about the crazy woman (though interesting) is kind of distracting to the main point which is how amazing these dogs are): Moscow's Stray Dogs: Exiled or Admired?