Lucy story

       I am a molecular biologist by education and training. Like many of my colleagues in Russia, in the 90s, I was looking for a job abroad. However, in Moscow and other cities there were virtually no jobs with salaries sufficient to support a family.I was lucky; I found a temporary position in Italy, at a university that was founded 700 years ago.It was located in the small, but extraordinarily beautiful town of Camerino.It was there that I met a new friend.My friend was an Italian stray dog, ugly, skinny and without tail who desperately barked at me when we first met.I answered (to) this barking dog with a few kind words and the dog began to follow me wherever I went. In the morning she followed me to the laboratory building where I worked, and waited for the whole day near the door. In the evening she escorted me home and slept near the door of the guest house, where I lived.
       After some time I began to give some food to this small and funny animal, although this dog’s great loyalty to me had started before any food was given. I think that she just loved me for speaking kindly and gently. I believe this had not happened very frequently in her life before this. I was very lonely in Italy. For the first time in my life I was without family and without my usual circle of friends. I decided to give my new “chetvoronogomu drugu” (four-legged friend in Russian) a name. I wanted to give her the Italian name "Lucia", but my newly acquired Russian friends had advised me to use the Russian variant of the name “Люся”-"Lucy". As time went by, I realized that this little animal had touched me and I am now felt responsible for her fate.
       I recalled the words of Antoine de Saint-Exup;ry from "The Little Prince", “You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed ". I realized that I couldn’t abandon Lucy in Italy. How could I go about adopting her? I was hoping to get a job in the US. However, I did not yet have a job offer, let alone a contract in the US, and I had very little money to spare. All I earned in Italy, I sent to Moscow to my mother and my grandmother, who lived there with my son. My son’s father was deceased, so I had to think of how to support my son. A stray dog should not be my priority.
       Prior to this I had purchased a ticket to New York, where I was planning to stay with friends temporarily. Unfortunately my ticket to New York  was purchased before my meeting with Lucy, on an airline, which did not accept animals in the luggage compartment. To change the ticket would require money.  I would need to vaccinate Lucy before she could come to America. And I would need a cage. I didn’t have money for any of this. I was desperate.  Every morning I cried. The situation seemed hopeless to me.
       Then real "angels" started to appear in my life. These "angels" started to help me to solve all my problems one by one. At first I met Roberto. Roberto was a teacher at the local Camerino School and according to many Italians he was an absolutely crazy person. He was a dedicated animal lover. Stray dogs and cats were regularly killed in Camerino. Roberto raised money for the creation of a no-kill animal shelter and alone he collected 700 stray dogs. He vaccinated all his animals and usually within two years he could find adoptive owners for all his dogs. He offered to take Lucy to his shelter. I hesitated. Seeing my hesitation, Roberto said that in any case, he would provide free vaccinations at a veterinarian whom he befriended. So, Lucy got immunized.
      Then Italian friends introduced me to Joan, who had been teaching chemistry at the University of Camerino. Joan was also very fond of dogs; she was the owner of a dog, and had worked for some time in America. She called the American embassy in Rome and learned all details about obtaining a passport for Lucy. In addition, she gave me a cage and promised to take me to the Rome airport (7 hours of travel one way). Then some colleagues from the laboratory started to visit the travel agency every day to find a new ticket for me so I would not have to pay too much extra. (The Internet did not exist at that time, and travel agency personal did not speak English. Nor did I speak Italian, even though I worked in an Italian laboratory).The ticket was found! It was a ticket with a very small surcharge. And still, I kept meeting "angels". During a flight from Rome to Brussels, Lucy was so nervous that she almost ate her wooden cage. The customs officials in Brussels gave me a new cage.
      And so, Lucy and I arrived in New York, where, I met my old friends from Moscow, Marina and Andrew. For a time, they also became "angels" for me and Lucy, by giving us a temporary home. Lucy befriended Marina’s and Andrew’s cat. And then a lot of things happen.., but in general, life as a Russian emigre in America was much easier for me because for the next 15 years, I had a great friend, a creature named Lucy.



     I am grateful to John Atkins and Karen Rosado for English corrections.