The Cat Story ~ An Amazing Tale Of A Cat And His Human Family

Aleksandar Ristić
July 3 at 1:21 PM ·

“My grandmother always said that she and my mother, and I, her daughter,
survived the severe blockade and hunger only thanks to our cat Vaska.

If it were not for this red-headed bully, my daughter and I would have died of hunger like many others.

Every day Vaska went hunting and and my grandmother
made stew from what he dragged back.

At the same time, the cat always sat nearby and waited for food,
and at night all three of us lay under one blanket and he warmed us.

He felt the bombing much earlier than the air raid was announced,
began to spin and meow plaintively, my grandmother managed to collect things,
water, mother, cat and run out of the house.

When they fled to the shelter, as a family member, they dragged him with them
and watched him not to be taken away and eaten.

The hunger was terrible. Vaska was hungry as everyone else and skinny.

All winter until spring, my grandmother collected crumbs for the birds,
and from spring they went hunting with the cat.

Grandmother poured crumbs and sat with Vaska in ambush,
his jump was always surprisingly accurate and fast.

Vaska was starving with us and he didn't have enough strength to keep the bird.

He grabbed a bird, and grandmother ran out of the bushes and helped him.

So from spring to autumn, they also ate birds.

When the blockade was lifted and more food appeared, and even after the war,
my grandmother always gave the cat the best piece.

She stroked him affectionately, saying - you are our breadwinner.

Vaska died in 1949, my grandmother buried him in the cemetery and,
so that the grave would not be trampled, put a cross and wrote Vasily Bugrov.

Then my mother put my grandmother next to the cat,
and then I buried my mother there too.

So all three lie behind the same fence,
as they once did in the war under one blanket." Svetlana Shaov.

Story found in the
World War 2 Eastern Front group

Also as some noted this Is about the siege of Leningrad,in case any of you reading
this want to learn more about that important moment in history aside from the above tagged group
here's a fairly detailed documentary episode on it

https://youtu.be/IiQDe0Au58c

Lastly stories like these dont mean that *everyone* today has it easy-many people
in many places still daily face struggle and strife of various sorts,
some sadly very similar to this story.

However we should *never* forget what some folks,like the many soviets living in Leningrad
had to go through due to the aggression of the nazis,
may no one ever have to face this sort of thing again.
Aleksandar Ristić

 

Soviet Storm. WW2 in the East - The Siege Of Leningrad. Episode 5. StarMedia. Babich-Design



View: https://youtu.be/IiQDe0Au58c