They wake up to the sound of bombs. Jump out of bed. They should huddle inside the bathtub, right? Or in the hallway. But, no. The bombs are close, and they’re enormous, large enough to destroy the entire building.
We’ll go into the subway tunnels, they decide. We can shelter there. But what to bring? The dog of course. The cat. A stuffed animal for the child. A bottle of water.
The dog owners remember to bring a leash. Of course they do. But the cats? They’re already scared. Do you think they’ll submit to a leash? Actually, some do. How many? I don’t know.
The shelling goes on for days. When it stops, will the tunnel dwellers dare to come out?
After some time … days? weeks? … The aggressor is pushed back. The mayor tells the people in the tunnels that it’s safe now. Please come out. We need to start the subway again.
But what about the lost dogs and cats, those without a leash that lost their way inside the tunnels?
The city officials are surprisingly sympathetic. They send people to search the tunnels. In the end, they find all but one dog. The cats? Well, you know cats. They have an independent streak. Still, you never know. The lost cats may find their family again … eventually, in a month or a year or two. Or they may find another family. That happens.
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This isn’t actually a story. It’s just a little something I read that stuck with me, a small anecdote, a couple of paragraphs in the middle of a chapter on another subject. And yet, I remembered it. I could see the scene, imagine what it would be like to be the frightened people in the subway tunnels with their dogs and cats, the dogs shivering, the cats getting spooked and running off.
This “story” is from a recent non-fiction book, Diary of an Invasion by Andrey Kurkov. I didn’t mark the page on my Kindle, though. Maybe I could go back and find it again. Does it matter? I think not. This is the way I remember it.
How much do you remember of what your read? How much do you forget?
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The incident with the dogs and cats in the subway tunnels happened in Kharkiv, Ukraine, early in Russia’s full-scale invasion. Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second largest city. Before the invasion, it had a population of 1,415,820. Almost a quarter of the city has been destroyed during the past three years, but the population is only slightly smaller now. Citizens of Kharkiv, love their city and refuse to leave even though Russia still shells it frequently.
Kharkiv is only 19 miles from the Russian border, and yet, despite a long and brutal war, Russia has been unable to conquer it.
A fine reminder. Actually I often don’t even remember whether I have read a book – that is one reason why I leave bookmarks in them.
In the past few years I’ve been reading books on Kindle. I look at the title when I buy the book, and, unless I make an effort, I never see the title again. So, off the top of my head, I can’t always say which book I’ve read.
How much do you remember of what your read? How much do you forget?
I remember the essence of about 20% of what I read, allowing for the other 80% to be a pleasant way to pass the time. Now if someone tells me a story in person, I’m more focused and will probably remember it in its entirety. This is why I read the news and never watch it.
When I think back on books I’ve read, I often find there are certain scenes I remember. For example, the scene in Tom Sawyer where the kids are painting a fence. Or this small fact I remember reading somewhere about Edgar Allen Poe that when he was writing The Raven, he spent some effort practicing all the vowel sounds and finally decided that the long “o” was the saddest sound. That’s why the raven says, “Nevermore.” I just looked up the poem. It has 18 stanzas, much of which we don’t remember, but we all remember “Nevermore” and maybe also “Lenore.”
Isn’t it ironic how the presence of dogs and cats (and other animals) humanizes the terror of war for readers?
That’s true, Nancy. This war has many stories about sympathetic human beings, but maybe there are too many. It’s hard to look and bear the sadness.
I will now remember that story forever also. When I was first in LA during a wildfire, I remember reading about a man who died because he went back into his burning house to try and save his cat. Weeks later, I read about how the cat eventually reappeared in an animal shelter with minor burns. My money’s on those Ukrainian cats surviving.
It’s funny the stories we remember. I wasn’t even in the US when Mt. St. Helen’s erupted, but I still remember the story of the old man who refused to leave his little house in the woods and died.
I agree with you on the Ukrainian cats. Besides, Ukrainians seem to love their pets. Animal lovers drive into the danger zone with their trunks full of food for them.
War is awful for all living creatures.
Including wild animals and zoo animals. Besides, it’s awful for the environment–air, water, and soil pollution, land mines, burned forests, oil spills, flooded farmland when the large dam was blown up, and so forth.
If someone tells me a story, I usually remember it, more than if someone recites to me a litany of facts. I relate to stories, because many lives are changed through stories.
You have to work hard to remember facts, but stories are natural to us and have been forever.