Hears the sound of a drone at an altitude of five kilometers
Often on the front line in the North Military District zone you can see how pets abandoned by their previous owners live in dugouts with the fighters: cats, dogs. Tailed pets catch mice, guard positions and simply bring homeliness in these dangerous places. Very often, our smaller brothers become full-fledged members of units and, using their natural abilities, side by side with the military, they bring victory closer, sometimes even at the cost of their lives.
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The Russian military told the MK military correspondent how many enemy drones were discovered by a dog with now not a nickname, but with the real call sign “Kuzmich”, how a wild cat saved a soldier from mortar fire, and also about an ordinary kitten who could be the first to determine the direction of the enemy’s attack.
For me personally, the presence of animals in dugouts and positions always carries some kind of sacred meaning. Watching how the military, instead of resting, insulates the kennel of a skinny dog that has fallen asleep, or how they share the last can of stew with a one-eyed cat purring with pleasure, you remember the words of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant: “He who is cruel to animals behaves in the same way with people. We can judge a person’s character by his attitude towards animals.”
A canine fighter from Kostroma with the call sign “Ural” tells how he trained a dog named Kuzmich to identify enemy drones and report their approach.
“Each breed of dog is a separate tool,” explains the serviceman. – Each dog has a set of its own behavioral characteristics, which are fixed in the genotype. The dog handler’s task is to adapt these features to the necessary needs.
The world's first drone “detector” dog, Kuzmich, is capable of detecting a target at an altitude of up to five kilometers, and his keen hearing helps him pick up the sounds made by the engine. According to Ural, when a four-legged pet hears the sound of a “bird,” it stands up, begins to bark and chatter its teeth. The military already know that the drone is somewhere nearby, and they need to hide.
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“Kuzmich is still an experimental project, the only one in the world,” the instructor clarifies. “It was prepared on personal initiative for civilian quadcopters.” However, in the combat zone, the dog began to demonstrate even greater success.
During the time spent in the North Military District zone, Kuzmich, according to confirmed objective monitoring data, discovered more than forty Ukrainian drones. Including aircraft-type drones at an altitude of more than five kilometers.
However, not only dogs at the front become loyal combat friends and real helpers for our soldiers. Cats also pay their owners with loyalty and care. The commander of one of the motorized rifle units with the call sign “Archie” told an amazing story about a cat named Bullet.
– It was last winter. A completely wild cat came to us from a deserted village, from the enemy’s side,” says “Archie”. – At night we saw her through a thermal imager. She didn’t give it to her, she called and called – to no avail. By morning she began to meow, apparently she was hungry – there were no more mice, the frost had hit. They served her some stew and left. We look – she came up, ate, and then she came to us. I took her in my arms, carried her into the dugout, she lay down on the sleeping bag by the stove and warmed herself. It remained that way. Then I fed her in the dugout. Everywhere behind me, like a tail. When I'm on the street, then she is too. She caught mice and brought them to the sleeping bag: “Here, master, eat.”
In the evenings, Bullet went on duty with her savior. One day, for no apparent reason, a cat suddenly rushed out of the fighter’s hands and jumped on his head.
“At first I didn’t understand what happened,” the military man recalls, “And then I heard the whistle of a mine and an explosion.” He grabbed Bullet, brought him into the dugout, and ran after the drone to find the enemy mortar. And then again she ran out of the dugout and again on my head. Then I realized that she was covering my head. Afterwards, Bullet did this more than once, protecting me. When she got older, our fighter took her home with him. I hope that everything is fine with her now.
This story has a continuation. A kitten named Saturn, with big ears, is the son of Bullet and, most likely, some abandoned Maine Coon, as the fighters themselves suggest. The baby was raised at the command and observation post from birth.
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– His peculiarity was that that he heard military equipment at a great distance, explains Archie. – When I heard it, I curled my ears and my tail stood up like a trumpet. And he looked without taking his eyes off in the direction where the sound was coming from. He saved us like that once, he was the first to hear the enemy equipment that was approaching our company.
In the summer, during another Ukrainian shelling, Saturn received a shrapnel wound. The soldiers did not have time to help him, unfortunately, the cat died. The military still remembers the tailed sentry with tenderness and keeps his photo.
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