The Monument and the Dogs

At the monument to the liquidators, the honor guard is provided by the dogs. Descendants of the pets left behind in 1986, they live around the checkpoints and the plant, thick-furred, diplomatic, extremely informed about which pocket holds the sandwiches.

Two of them attended my visit to the memorial, sitting in the snow with the patience of professionals. The workers feed them; the tour drivers feed them; I fed them, obviously.

The monument honors the people who went toward the thing everyone else fled. The dogs, in their way, honor the same story: something was abandoned here, and something stayed anyway, and both are still present in the snow, warm-blooded and asking for lunch.