Homeless Dogs

There are many stray dogs in Moscow. It is interesting that the same word
"homeless" in Russian is used for both people and dogs. A Russian friend
said that they used to send dog catchers out, but since most of the caught
dogs ended up being put to sleep, people felt bad, so they stopped doing
that. I see people feeding the dogs sometimes, and they hang out in certain
places, like a particular part of the MGU campus. They are generally quite
friendly, unless something disturbs them. A friend told me he saw a couple
of dogs sleeping in the grass and then a bicycle went by and they got up to
chase it. I was having a snack before class the other day, just standing on
the sidewalk, and a couple stray dogs came up to me and very politely looked
at me, smelling the food, and gave me looks of "Hey man, can you help a
fellow out?" I saw a big dog in my subway car the other day. She was just
lying on the floor taking it easy. I wondered if she knew where she was
going.