The story of the cat, whose meowing caused an apartment to be broken into, fascinated Russians

There is one well-known legal and ethical lacuna in modern city life: opening the door of an apartment without an owner is difficult in our time. Even if there is a suspicion that this very owner is literally dying there, inside, the inviolability of the home is a heartless thing. And they collect and collect documents, signatures, resolutions – and the days go by until it is too late. Just guess what: in this situation, a perfect master key appeared. If there is a cat outside the door, the problem is quickly solved.

For example, a few days ago in Shcherbinka, rescuers opened an apartment to rescue the cat Baron, who had been locked up for several days without an owner or food. It turned out that its owner, a deaf-mute man, was hospitalized. He asked a friend to feed the animal, but he did not visit the pet for several days. Now the apartment is sealed and waiting for the owner to return, and volunteers have taken the cat for foster care.

A few days earlier, a similar story happened in Tomilin, near Moscow. There, behind the door of a locked apartment, there was a spaniel, which attracted the attention of the neighbors with a plaintive howl. The rescuers, who were called by the neighbors, quickly opened the door and found the dog in the middle of an apartment littered with bottles and cigarette butts – after which the dog was also sheltered by compassionate people.

Try to find a person who would not applaud this development of events. Well, the truth is – everything is fine, the animals are saved, and why formalities if we are talking about a living soul! Well, good is good; Here are some other stories for you then.

CAT AS A LOCKPICK

On these same days, in Otradnoye, in the north-east of Moscow, an entire entrance to an ordinary nine-story panel building sat without hot water for several days. The reason is the simplest: a riser burst in one of the apartments, the residents of which are either on vacation or permanently outside Russia. In general, out of reach. To prevent water from pouring onto the heads of the neighbors below, utility workers had to turn off the entire entrance. Calls to the control room and applications to the city portal were answered: yes, we are aware, but we cannot open the apartment without the decision of 50% of the owners of the house. Everything ended well, but I had to call and write “upstairs”: the situation did not seem as certain as if there was a cat in the apartment.

It happens – and quite often – a variation of this plot with quite lively, but inappropriate neighbors: they simply do not answer doorbells or telephone calls, they do not want to let mechanics into their apartment (you never know, they suddenly think that under the guise of a plumber they Jack the Ripper will come). And what? And nothing: leaks can continue for months with the complete indifference of even local police officers. What can you take from the owners, they have the inviolability of their home.

About cases when an elderly or unhealthy person stops showing up from the apartment and answering calls – and neither relatives, nor friends, nor neighbors manage to get the door opened, because “there is no reason” (and they only appear, alas, along with a specific smell from under the door), we read in the news almost every week across the country. Daily tragedies that have become a habit and do not cause much reaction from readers.

After all, in all these apartments, behind doors that the neighbors would gnaw through with their teeth if they could, there are no cats!

The idea that animals are better than people (or rather, “people are bastards, but animals are not”) first became more or less widespread in our country twenty years ago, in a specific circle of animal rights activists. More precisely, animal rights activists: this “profession” is mainly for women. Ladies aged 25 to 60, who carried the first volunteer shelters for dogs and cats on their shoulders and wallets, are unconditional heroines, but this heroism came complete with a kind of exotic, poseur misanthropy. And also with unsettled family life, no matter how stereotypical it sounds. The only happy (at that time, in the 2000s) couple of animal rights activists known to the author of these lines professed a paradoxical and barbaric, in the opinion of this environment, approach to business. They urged people not to be afraid to regulate the number of urban animals, including through euthanasia.

But, I repeat, then – 15-20 years ago – the idea that animals are better than people and more worthy of saving than their own fellow citizens was “niche”, popular only in a certain and rather narrow environment. But in the 2010s, unnoticed by most of us, the emotional background changed. Either the Internet “cat memes”, on which today’s twenty-year-olds literally grew up from the cradle, had an effect. Either a fanatical love for animals turned out to be the only undeniable option: if you love people and help them, someone will definitely “present” that you are helping the “reds”, but it should be the “whites”.

Well, to hell with your politics, we decided, without realizing it. And animals were appointed the only worthy object of love.

A driver who, while trying to save a cat or dog, suddenly braked and created a train accident behind him, would previously have been considered an unprofessional who needed to treat his nerves. And now – almost certainly a hero; and non-professionals are those who failed to stop in such cases. In almost all media and telegram channels in the “Good News” section there is usually something about saving dogs, cats, or polar bear cubs with seals. Well, the category of “kindness” really shouldn’t be applied to people!

Well, when in some not-too-distant future you and I will be required to leave duplicate keys to “whoever is supposed to,” and rescuers and police will be able to open apartments without unnecessary formalities, we will, of course, rejoice. After all, all this is done for a reason, but for the sake of our pets. Get animals – maybe they will call for help in time and save your life.