One morning I came home from the waters and sat drinking my coffee in the latticed garden. Bulka began to scratch himself behind the ears and to rattle his collar. This noise disturbed the bees, and I removed the collar from Bulka’s neck.
After a little while I heard in the direction of the city on the mountain a strange and terrible uproar. Dogs were barking, yelping, and howling, men were yelling, and this tumult came down from the mountain and seemed to come nearer and nearer to our suburb.
Bulka had ceased scratching himself, and had laid his broad head between his white fore paws, and with his white teeth exposed and his tongue lolling out, as his habit was, was lying peaceably beside me. When he heard the uproar, he seemed to understand what it was all about; he pricked up his ears, showed his teeth, jumped up, and began to growl.
The tumult came nearer. It seemed as if all the dogs from the whole city were yelping, whining, and barking. I went out to the gate to look, and my landlady joined me there.
I asked :
“What is that?”
She replied :
“ Prisoners from the jail coming to kill dogs. Many dogs are running loose, and the city authorities have ordered all dogs in the city to be killed.”
“What ! would they kill Bulka if they saw him ? “
“ No; they are ordered to kill only those without collars.”
Just as I was speaking, the prisoners were already on their way toward our yard.
In front marched soldiers, followed by four convicts in chains. Two of the convicts had long iron hooks in their hands, and the other two had clubs. When they came in front of our gate, one of the prisoners with a hook caught a cur of low degree, dragged him into the middle of the street, and the other prisoner began to maul him with his club. The whelp yelped horribly, and the convicts shouted something and roared with laughter. The convict with the hook turned the little dog over, and when he saw that he was dead, he pulled back his crook and began to look about for other victims.
At this moment Bulka leaped headlong at the convict, just as he had at the bear. I remembered that he was without a collar, and I cried, “ Back, Bulka,” and I shouted to the convicts not to kill my dog.
But the convict saw Bulka, guffawed, and skilfully speared at him with his hook, and caught him under the thigh.
Bulka tried to break away, but the convict pulled him toward him, and shouted to the other, “ Kill him ! “
The other was already swinging his club, and Bulka would have been surely killed, but he struggled, the skin on his haunch gave way, and, putting his tail between his legs, and with a frightful wound in his thigh, he dashed at full speed through the gate, into the house, and hid under my bed.
What saved him was the fact that the skin on the place where the hook seized him tore out entirely.
Chapter VIII THE END OF BULKA AND MILTON
BULKA and Milton met their death about the same time. The old Cossack did not understand how to treat Milton. Instead of taking him with him only when he went after birds, he tried to make a boar-hunter of him.
That same autumn a sekatch l boar gored him. No one knew how to sew up the wound, and Milton died.
Bulka also did not live long after his rescue from the convicts. Soon after his rescue from the convicts, he began to mope and to lick everything that came in his way. He would lick my hand, but not as in former days when he meant to caress me. He licked long, and energetically thrust out his tongue, and then he began to seize things with his teeth.
Evidently he felt the impulse to bite the hand, but tried to refrain. I did not like to let him have my hand.
Then he began to lick my boot and the table leg, and then to bite the boot or the table leg.
This lasted two days, and on the third day he disap-peared, and no one ever saw him or heard of him again.
It was impossible for him to have been stolen, and he could not have run away from me.
Now this happened to be about six weeks after the wolf had bitten him. It must have been that the wolf was quite rabid. Bulka also became rabid and went off. He was afflicted with what hunters call stetchka the first stage of madness. It is said that madness is first shown by spasms in the throat. Rabid animals desire to drink, but are unable, because water makes the spasms more violent. Then they get beside themselves with pain and thirst, and begin to bite.
Probably these spasms were just beginning with Bulka, when he showed such a disposition to lick everything, and then to bite my boot and the table leg.
I traveled over the whole region and made inquiries about Bulka, but I could learn nothing about where he had gone or how he died.
If he had run mad and bitten any one as mad dogs usually do, I should have heard from him. But probably he went out somewhere into the thick woods, and died there alone.
Huntsmen declare that when an intelligent dog is at-tacked by madness, he runs off into the field or woods, and there finds the herb which he needs, rolls over in the dew, and cures himself.
Evidently Bulka did not get well. He never returned, and he disappeared forever.
Tales From Zoology
Translated by Nathan Haskell Dole 1888
Chapter I
OWL AND THE HARE
IT was growing dark. The owls began to fly in the forest, over the ravine, in search of their prey.
A big gray hare was bounding over the field, and began to smooth his fur.
An old owl, as she sat on the bough, was watching the gray hare; and a young owl said, “ Why don’t you pounce down on the hare ? “
The old one replied :
“ I am not strong enough. The hare is large. If you should clutch him, he would carry you off into the thicket.”
But the young owl said :
“ Why, I could hold him with one claw, and with the other I could cling to the tree.”
And the young owl swooped down on the hare, clutched his back with his claw in such a way that all the nails sank into the fur, and he was going to cling to the tree with the other claw; and he said to him-self :
“ He will not escape.”
But the hare darted himself away, and pulled the owl in two. One claw remained in the tree; the other in the hare’s back.
The next year a sportsman killed this hare, and was surprised to find on his back the talons of a full-grown owl.
Chapter II
HOW WOLVES TEACH THEIR CUBS
I WAS riding along the road, when I heard some one shouting behind me. It was a young shepherd. He was running across a field, and pointing at something.
I looked, and saw two wolves running across the field. One was full grown; the other was a cub. The cub had on his back a lamb which had just been killed, and he had the leg in his mouth.
The old wolf was running behind.
As soon as I saw the wolves, I joined the shepherd, and we started in pursuit, setting up a shout.
When they heard our shout, some peasants started out also in pursuit, with their dogs.
.As soon as the old wolf caught sight of the dogs and the men, he ran to the young one, snatched the lamb from him, jerked it over his own back, and both wolves increased their pace and were soon lost from view.
Then the lad began to relate how it had happened. The big wolf had sprung out from the ravine, seized the lamb, killed it, and carried it off. The cub came to meet him, and threw himself on the lamb. The old wolf allowed the young wolf to carry the lamb, but kept running a short distance behind.
But as soon as there was danger, the old one ceased giving the lesson, and seized the lamb for himself.
Chapter III
HARES AND WOLVES
HARES feed at night on the bark of trees; field-hares, on seeds and grass; barn-hares, on grains of wheat on the threshing-floors.
In the night-time hares leave on the snow a deep, noticeable trail. Men and dogs and foxes and crows and eagles delight in hunting hares.
If a hare went in a straight line without doubling, then in the morning there would be no trouble in fol-lowing his trail and catching him; but God has endowed the hare with timidity, and this timidity is his salvation.
At night the hare runs over the fields and woods with-out fear and leaves a straight track; but as soon as morning comes, and his foes awake, then the
