Oksana Malaya: what a Ukrainian Mowgli girl raised by dogs looks like now
The story of the Ukrainian Mowgli Girl stirred the whole world in the early 90s. SSPDaily tells about it.
From the age of three, Oksana Malaya, who was born in the village of Nova Blahovishchenka, Kherson region, grew up with her pet dogs.
This happened after her alcoholic father and mother, who had "too many children," neglected her.
Her first trip to the dog world happened on a frosty night when she snuck into Naida's house. Then her parents just left her on the street.
She started living in a kennel, walking on four legs and growling like a dog.
Now 42-year-old Oksana has spoken out about her rather unconventional upbringing, the Daily Star reports: "My mom had too many kids, we didn't have enough beds."
Over the years, her canine tendencies grew to the point where she began breathing with her tongue out, grinding her teeth, and eating food directly from the ground.
She even claimed she could talk to dogs by speaking: "I talked to them, they barked, and I repeated it."
When Oksana was found in 1991, the dogs were protecting the girl and keeping the police away from her. Law enforcement officers had to lure the dogs away with food, and Oksana was taken to an orphanage.
"She looked more like a little dog than a human child," the director of the educational institution told 60 Minutes Australia. "She would stick her tongue out when she saw water, eat without hands."
After she was taken by social services after six years of living with dogs, she eventually adapted to human life. She learned to walk properly and underwent speech therapy. But sometimes she showed dog-like behavior.
She explained: "When I feel lonely, I do anything: I crawl on all fours. That's how I feel lonely. Since I don't have anyone, I spend time with the dogs, go for walks and do whatever I want. No one notices that I walk on all fours."
In 2012, Oksana was proposed to by Fedir, who worked as a laborer at a factory in Kazan. He saw her on TV, called her, and later confessed his love in a letter. The man came to see her, but, as Oksana told Tabu journalists, she rejected him and refused to marry him.
Now Oksana lives in a clinic in Odesa and helps out at the hospital's farm. She takes care of the animals.
In Colombia, a woman was raised by monkeys in the jungle. She copied their eating habits and cries. Now her daughter has exchanged her normal life in the UK for something like what her family member experienced.