In the combat zone in Donbass, a cat gave birth to four kittens right during the shelling. And the volunteer sapper Yakov with the call sign "Fox" took the entire feline family out of the special military zone to his home in the Chelyabinsk region.
This story began at the end of 2022, said journalist Yulia Galkina. In Donbass many houses are abandoned and stray, former pets come to the soldiers. That's how the local cat got attached to the Russian military.
"We fed her and she became a kind of talisman for us, a kind of hymers determinant,— jokes Yakov. — If she was not afraid to be in a certain place, then we are safe. Cats can feel everything." The cat lived with the fighters until March 2023. She got stronger, got better (even too much). Fluffy settled on the bookshelf just between books in Russian and Ukrainian.
What was the surprise of the soldiers when during the night shelling from HIMARS they heard a squeak and found a cat and newborn kittens on the shelf that had already lost a lot of weight! So the call sign "librarians" stuck to the fluffy family.
When Yakov went home on vacation, he gathered all the fuzzies for the road. Here's what he told KP-CHELYABINSK: "On the way with the fighters, the kittens spent the night in the forest, in a tent. They were against cats. That's why I allocated them an ammunition crate, where they slept. I've already bought a carrier in the city. Animals are not allowed on the train, so I hid them in my bag. In his hometown of Zlatoust, in the Chelyabinsk region, he went to his native school No. 38, where he graduated from the cadet class. I told the director about my fighting kittens, who need a home and a loving owner."
The information spread through the parent chats. There the message was seen by journalist Yulia Galkina, who wrote a post about finding kind hands. Thanks to her, the whole city learned about the story of the good fighter. Now all kittens have their own homes and peaceful lives. And the mother cat lives with Yakov's grandparents.
The fighter returned back to service and ... saved a German shepherd dog near Lugansk, which was abandoned by the owners. The dog was chained up for two months until our fighters picked him up. "Now the Volcano, that's how the dog was named, is with us until victory," Yakov said.
The "Fox" himself at home in Zlatoust became so popular that they began to draw comics about him. This is what is called a kind heart and indifference to someone else's trouble.
Photo by Julia Galkina and from the personal archive of Yakov "Fox"