Maksim the Feline Blokadnik

Here’s Maksim after the world war II, looking for a handout.

A family in Leningrad had a cat named Maksim and a parrot called Jack. During the German siege of the city, almost every day, their uncle, who lived with them, wanted to make a meal of the cat, and each time the rest of the family went out, they always locked the cat into the storeroom. As time passed, the cat grew malnourished and sickly because of poor food. Once, Maksim managed to jump onto the cupboard and opened the cage that the parrot Jack lived in. The family thought that the cat would eat Jack, but instead of doing so, the two pets huddled up to one another for warmth and fell asleep. After that, the uncle didn’t try to make anything bad to the cat. The parrot died soon afterwards, but Maksim lived until 1957, dying of old age.