Ivan Mishukov: The Boy Who Was Saved By Dogs
Channel One/YouTubeIvan Mishukov lived with stray dogs in a town near Moscow for about two years.
While most feral humans are abandoned against their will, Ivan Mishukov found living on the streets preferable to his life at home. He had a difficult childhood in the care of an alcoholic grandfather who commonly left Mishukov on his lonesome for days on end. At the age of three or four, the young boy left the house to find refuge with stray dogs in the mid-1990s.
The homeless Russian boy and his companions begged for food from a local bakery in a town near Moscow. In the cold of night, Mishukov curled up with the pack of dogs in order to fall asleep. He named the dogs Jesse, Goga, Masha, and Seva — and spent about two years with them.
The hounds had grown to accept Mishukov as one of their own and shared whatever scraps they found in the street with him. Mishukov returned the favor. But then, the police rescued him in 1998. This took several tries, as the protective dogs wouldn’t let anyone near Mishukov at first.
Channel One/YouTubeMishukov later excelled academically and now holds a full-time job.
By the time Mishukov was saved, he was about five or six years old and in clear need of help. Still, he was reluctant to leave the dogs that he had bonded with. “I loved the dogs and they loved me,” Mishukov said. “They gave me a lick on the face — that’s how dogs give kisses.”
Mishukov was soon placed into an orphanage near Moscow. His loyal canine family never forgot him, however, and appeared at the institution’s entrance gates to retrieve him. Unfortunately, local officials decided to kill the dogs — which Mishukov described as his “only family.”
“I understand that if it wasn’t for those dogs I wouldn’t have survived in the street,” said Mishukov. “But I am also grateful to policemen who took me from the pack, and of course to my foster mum who raised me.”
Mishukov’s fortune certainly changed when Tatiana Babanina took him in. The loving foster mother not only helped him recover from his traumatizing youth but also ensured that he excelled academically. After graduating from Kronstadt Naval Cadet School, he found a full-time factory job. Unlike many other feral people, his story has had a mostly happy ending.
Marina Chapman: The Girl Raised By Monkeys
Marina ChapmanMarina Chapman claimed to have lived with a family of monkeys for five years.
Many of the feral children on this list had traumatizing youths, and Marina Chapman is no exception. According to Chapman, she was kidnapped at the age of four only to be abandoned in the jungles of Colombia in the 1950s.
She remembers being left for dead, only to encounter a group of monkeys that cautiously allowed her to join their family.
As chronicled in her autobiography The Girl With No Name, she began to follow the roaming family of primates around. Wordlessly leading her to fruits and nuts, they ultimately accepted her as one of them. Ultimately, however, she soon learned some of the tougher laws of the jungle.
“They don’t give you anything,” said Chapman. “You just have to wait until something drops and then you have to move quickly because if you don’t another monkey will take it away.”
It’s worth noting that her story has been difficult to prove or disprove, with some naysayers claiming that she’s making the whole thing up.
ChapmanMarina/TwitterChapman (right) is now a published author and grandmother.
But as Chapman tells it, she lived with the monkeys for about five years. At the age of nine, she finally garnered the courage and curiosity to approach people in the jungle, only to be captured and forced into sexual slavery in a nearby town. While she was eventually able to escape, she soon found herself on the streets with a limited vocabulary.
“I learned quickly with children to speak, when I came to the city, but with adults, I found them difficult to understand,” said Chapman. “With monkeys you know where you stand with them, but with humans it’s complicated.”
Chapman had no problem stealthily finding food and nimbly evading onlookers. But she was tired of merely surviving, so she accepted a job as a household servant in an attempt to properly support herself. However, when she overheard her employer discussing a murder, she realized that she was working for ruthless gangsters — and was forced to escape yet again.
While her book led several critics to try to debunk her story, they have yet to do so. Even her publisher ordered Chapman to be evaluated for “false memory syndrome,” which she didn’t display. Amazingly, she’s a happy grandmother living in the United Kingdom today. Though she mostly lives a relatively normal life now, she did teach her children how to climb trees early on — and to make monkey noises at the breakfast table.
Still, Chapman doesn’t believe that her story is that unusual — despite the jaw-dropping details. “I’m really surprised because believe me I spent some time with some children in the streets and they had so many stories to tell that I don’t think mine was anything [special],” she said.
