e saw green before
her eyes, and ached in every joint. He would make her walk on her
hind legs, use her as a bell, that is, shake her violently by the
tail so that she squealed and barked, and give her tobacco to sniff
. . . . The following trick was particularly agonising: Fedyushka
would tie a piece of meat to a thread and give it to Kashtanka, and
then, when she had swallowed it he would, with a loud laugh, pull
it back again from her stomach, and the more lurid were her memories
the more loudly and miserably Kashtanka whined.

But soon exhaustion and warmth prevailed over melancholy. She began
to fall asleep. Dogs ran by in her imagination: among them a shaggy
old poodle, whom she had seen that day in the street with a white
patch on his eye and tufts of wool by his nose. Fedyushka ran after
the poodle with a chisel in his hand, then all at once he too was
covered with shaggy wool, and began merrily barking beside Kashtanka.
Kashtanka and he goodnaturedly sniffed each other's noses and merrily
ran down the street. . . .

III

_New and Very Agreeable Acquaintances_

When Kashtanka woke up it was already light, and a sound rose from
the street, such as only comes in the day-time. There was not a
soul in the room. Kashtanka stretched, yawned and, cross and
ill-humoured, walked about the room. She sniffed the corners and
the furniture, looked into the passage and found nothing of interest
there. Besides the door that led into the passage there was another
door. After thinking a little Kashtanka scratched on it with both
paws, opened it, and went into the adjoining room. Here on the bed,
covered with a rug, a customer, in whom she recognised the stranger
of yesterday, lay asleep.

"Rrrrr . . ." she growled, but recollecting yesterday's dinner,
wagged her tail, and began sniffing.

She sniffed the stranger's clothes and boots and thought they smelt
of horses. In the bedroom was another door, also closed. Kashtanka
scratched at the door, leaned her chest against it, opened it, and
was instantly aware of a strange and very suspicious smell. Foreseeing
an unpleasant encounter, growling and looking about her, Kashtanka
walked into a little room with a dirty wall-paper and drew back in
alarm. She saw something surprising and terrible. A grey gander
came straight towards her, hissing, with its neck bowed down to the
floor and its wings outspread. Not far from him, on a little mattress,
lay a white tom-cat; seeing Kasht