Once upon a time in the autumn, a tragedy occurred, and here is what happened.

In a small, remote Siberian village near a dense forest that seemed to have no end, lived a five-year-old boy named Kolya.

The boy had a faithful companion, a wolf named Grey. They were born, so to speak, on the same day. A local troublemaker and heavy drinker named Tolik brought a puppy for the boy’s christening. Refusing such a gift on that day was out of the question for the parents.

They took the puppy, handed Tolik a bottle, and that’s how things stood. Of course, at that time, no one could have imagined that this little puppy would turn out to be a wolf and would save their son’s life.

Time passed. Kolya and Grey grew up. Like two peas in a pod, they were inseparable for the villagers. Where Kolya was, there was Grey, and where Grey was, the boy could be found.

One autumn day, a disaster struck, and here is what happened.

On Kolya’s mother’s birthday, relatives from the city arrived, and to keep the wolf away from trouble, they locked him in an old barn.

The boy was deeply saddened by this circumstance, as he had entirely different plans for the day. He simply wanted to play with his friend Grey. Offended by his parents, he ran into the forest.

The parents, busy with guests, noticed the boy’s disappearance only in the afternoon. They searched the entire village, but no one had seen Kolya. Only an old mushroom picker seemed to have seen the boy near the forest, but he wasn’t sure, as his eyesight was not what it used to be.

The parents searched the outskirts of the forest, explored all the nooks in the small village, but couldn’t find their five-year-old son, and by then, it was getting dark and chilly.

People gathered at the house of the lost boy, and someone suggested releasing the wolf. Let him search, though they thought it was futile; after all, he wasn’t really a dog.

When the wolf was released from the barn, Grey ran into the forest, and the villagers, divided into groups, went in search of the little boy.

It was the third day after Kolya went missing. Parents and villagers didn’t give up their search, and suddenly, someone heard a wolf howl from the direction of the village.

Those who were closer to the village reached it first. The wolf’s howl came from the yard where Kolya lived.

Arriving there, people discovered the following scene: in the yard of Kolya’s house, lay an exhausted boy, and beside him sat Grey with his hind legs broken, howling loudly, calling for help.

A trail of dragging could be seen on the damp ground from the forest. It seemed that the wolf, while searching for the boy, got caught in a trap set by poachers, but he didn’t stop his search. When he found his weakened friend, dragging him back home with his hind legs broken, he called for help.

People rushed to the child, but the wolf bared his large fangs and began to growl menacingly, not allowing anyone near his friend.

The crowd recoiled, and someone guessed that the wolf wouldn’t let strangers close and that they urgently needed to find the boy’s parents, who were still in the forest. The parents were already running towards the boy, breaking through the crowd.

An ambulance, summoned by someone, arrived, and the boy’s father gently carried his son into the car with doctors, and they took the child to the hospital, where he stayed for almost a month.

When Kolya was discharged from the hospital and brought home, he was greeted by his faithful friend Grey, limping heavily on his hind legs.

After this incident, Grey and Kolya became even more attached to each other and never parted until Grey’s death. Nikolai buried his savior on the outskirts of the village and erected a small monument to his rescuer.

That’s the story of the little boy and his wolf friend. If you enjoyed it, give it a thumbs up, comment, and don’t forget to subscribe.