A closer look

Moscow has a population of stray dogs that have actually figured out how to use the city's complex subway system to commute from the suburbs to the city center for better scavenging. These highly intelligent canines board the trains in the morning, recognize their specific stops by scent or by the recorded announcements, and ride back out to the quieter outskirts to sleep at night. They even obey traffic lights and send the cutest, most non-threatening dog of the pack to beg for shawarma from unsuspecting tourists. It is deeply humbling to realize that a random street mutt in Russia has better navigational skills and public transit etiquette than the average human trying to decipher a subway map during rush hour