Reading this book is like walking into an old house filled with memories. Its atmosphere of a place lost in time and space carries its peculiar routines, tastes, sounds and smells.
In a tiny village on the banks of the Kerzhenets river surrounded by primeval forests and a wildlife sanctuary the people live and love; however, it’s the animals that are the main characters here: a kind and loveable St. Bernard dog Shmel, an impudent Russian Wolfhound Kai, white as snow and fast as an arrow, a rake and a trickster; a Neapolitan Mastiff Blackie, dark as the darkest of the nights; an insolent ginger Main Coon cat Murr; a ruthless tiger-colored Central Asian Shepherd Teager; a crass, shaggy and