Roman Serebryanny — Secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia, Director of the Youth Center of the Russian Federation

The German Shepherd is an honored Russian Guardsman and a veteran of the service. Zhair honestly worked in OMON for six years, which is the maximum term for a service dog. The story of Zhair and his master Roman K. was told by journalists of the publication "At the combat post". During the six years of his service, Zhair completed 1,346 tasks, inspected over three thousand objects and terrain areas, and made more than 320 combat exits.

When Roman K., an employee of the special forces, began his work as a dog handler, he did not have time for the distribution of animals, he was on vacation. Deep down, he was worried that he would get a future partner on a residual basis – one of those dogs that no one wanted to take. However, he was worried in vain. A very young black-and-red dog was waiting for him in the aviary, funny ears flattened, looking attentively at those around him.

"What's his name? - Zhair. We have heard that in the Middle East it means "helper". - Let's get acquainted, Zhair," Roman put his hand on the top of Jair's head, and the dog licked his hand and wagged his tail. "Well, it looks like we'll work together," Roman said with a smile.

At the qualification exam, despite the pouring rain, Zhair showed one of the best results in the search for explosives. And the first real test awaited the young dog and its mentor at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. Before and during the event, Roman and Zhair examined dozens of objects on an area of more than 12 thousand square meters, checked more than 400 cars. On his first combat mission, the matured Zhair set off as a trained mine-hunting dog. The tandem of Roman and Zhair helped the fighters to find caches of weapons and ammunition, during the "engineering" patrols, the partners checked the roads for unpleasant and dangerous "surprises".

Jair especially distinguished himself in his third combat mission just before leaving home. The squad then received information about an SUV allegedly carrying explosives. 

OMON soldiers set up a roadblock at one of the motorway junctions. The task was complicated by the fact that there was no information about the make, color or driver of the car being searched. Therefore, the fighters checked all the cars. They worked hard for several hours and it became noticeable that the dog was getting tired.

There was no more than half an hour left before the end of the shift when another car appeared on the road. At the request of the fighters, the crossover stopped and Roman began to inspect. Zhair walked slowly around the car, looked into the trunk. Suddenly, he sniffed warily at the bumper and froze. Everything inside the dog handler tensed: this conditional signal meant that his ward had smelled explosives.

By the most conservative calculations the bars of TNT attached to the bottom could have destroyed an apartment building. The driver and passenger were detained, traffic was blocked on the highway. The car was moved to a deserted place and destroyed. So the partners became the main characters of the day.

On his return to base, Roman received the commander's praise and thanks, and Zhair was ceremoniously rewarded with a large piece of meat on the bone. This trip was the last for Zhair, because six years of combat service is a solid period for a dog. And at the beginning of the summer, Zhair retired, handing over his post to a Labrador named Marcel. The dog was escorted to retirement in a solemn atmosphere by the whole squad. According to the tradition of the special forces, Roman took Zhair to his home in order not to part with his comrade-in-arms.

Photos of the Rosgvardiya press service.

The story about the girl Varya and the miraculous rescue of the tailed one in the town of Usman was told by journalists of the Lipetsk newspaper Novaya Zhizn. One spring day Varvara Guznaeva was returning home from school. The weather was chilly outside, slushy and drizzling. Passing by the Olympic swimming pool, she saw a downed and dying, but still alive cat on the side of the road. And I couldn't get past it.

The red-haired cat was covered in blood, broken, dazed from sudden pain and shock. And he was dying. People were passing by, but Varya stopped. The girl was wearing a white jacket, but not paying attention to the fact that the jacket would be stained, she took the poor animal in her arms. Dirty, covered in blood and didn't know where to take him so that someone would help.

Seeing a girl with a bloody cat in her arms, a boy from a nearby school helped her and escorted her to the nearest Pulse veterinary clinic at the railway crossing. Varvara carried the cat in her arms for about half a kilometer. And steadfastly kept herself from crying.

The only thing the eleven-year-old schoolgirl could beg the vet for was to save the cat. And here ginger was lucky for the second time. The clinic staff, led by doctor Vitaly Terentyev, did not dismiss the girl with no one's dying animal in her arms, took the animal for examination.

When Varya's parents arrived, the veterinarians did not hide it - the cat was very bad, the poor guy no longer had a fever, he was not breathing, but wheezing.

"After reassuring Varya that the cat needed to be treated in the hospital, we went home. Suspecting the most likely outcome of this whole story, I tried to distract my daughter. The cat is recovering, we have to wait. And the cat… The cat, realizing that someone else needed him in this world, remembering the warmth of his hands and the beating of a child's heart, tried his best. He was climbing out of death, clinging with all his weak claws," said Varya's mother Snezhana Guznaeva.

The staff of the veterinary clinic also did not stand aside and, by all means, tried to make the cat survive.  "If a child was able to help a poor animal not to die on the road, then so am I.……I'll get him out..." the veterinarian said at the time. And a miracle happened. Two and a half weeks later, Guznaev family received a call and said these important words: "The cat is alive and it can already be taken away!". Moreover, for treatment, medicines and care, and the cat was in a coma for several days, the vet clinic did not take a penny. They were so imbued with this story there.

"Varya's joy knew no bounds! We decided to find the owners of Chad, as we called him, from the words Humanity + Kindness. I wrote posts on social networks, waiting for the owner to be found. And while time was passing, we treated the cat, gave him injections and took him to the vet for examination," Snezhana continues.

The cat with the new name Chad turned out to be a rare clever one. He understood human speech perfectly, obediently did what was required of him, endured procedures and injections with fortitude.

After three weeks of a new life in a new family, the owner of the cat was found, who literally sobbed into the phone and asked to come to her red-haired friend. It turned out that Chad is a Barsik who left home for a walk. Now he has gone back to his masters.

"Of course, we are proud of our daughter, her act, and at the same time we think how she was not afraid," Varvara's mother shares. - She didn't know where to go to ask for help, but she found it anyway, asked and saved the red cat. And we tell her: "Varya, the good always comes back! This ginger cat is sure to bring you good luck!"

Photos from the personal archive of the Guznaev family.

Fyodor Yurchikhin — pilot-cosmonaut of the Russian Federation, Hero of Russia, President of the Center for Cosmonautics and Aviation at VDNH