Come to my village & rub my belly please

An urgent photo essay by Nika the village dog

No one leaves this house until my belly is thoroughly massaged.

Yes hello it’s me Nika. I am using Yandex Translate (semi-feral village dog —> English) to type this.

I don’t have much time so we will have to skip the formal introduction (sniffing each other’s rear ends for 10 minutes). Edward is on his way home with 15 liters of water strapped to his back and after he collapses and regains consciousness he will become suspicious if he sees me on his computer.

So let’s get down to business.

I am writing this blog post to inform you that as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Edward Institute for Village Studies, I hereby rename the institute: THE NIKA CENTER FOR BELLY RUBS (NCBR).

My decision is final.

In February, Edward published photos of the institute’s state-of-the-art village facilities. Now that the snow has melted I can show you more photographs of Novgorod’s most prestigious center for rubbing my belly.

Let’s start with the garage…

…which currently contains trash and a motorbike that doesn’t work. For the time being Edward is using this area to store hay. Obviously this structure will host more belly-related activities in the future.

This is the woodshed:

That is enough wood for maybe two weeks—what is Edward even doing? How will he rub my belly if he gets frostbite and all his fingers fall off? This isn’t a game it’s Russia.

Another shed, this one containing miscellaneous village treasure:

And here is where Edward will attempt to grow root vegetables and cucumbers. Emphasis on “attempt”:

Yet another shed—full of old buckets, which I’m sure Edward will fill up with water and carry around like an idiot:

As previously advertised, the Edward Institute for Village Studies Nika Center for Belly Rubs boasts its own banya:

The banya’s foyer:

The steam room:

Please do not enter the banya without dog supervision.

Thank you for your cooperation. Now let’s briefly look inside the Nika Center’s HQ:

As you can clearly see, the Nika Center is currently decorated in the classic Babushka Rococo style…

…And features a collection of classic Russian literature:

Here’s the throne room:

The dog massage parlor:

The second dog massage parlor:

The room for cooking dog food:

Edward has started to remove the wallpaper. Guess what’s behind the wallpaper?

Yes you guessed correctly, human: more wallpaper. Layers and layers of wallpaper. Wallpaper within wallpaper. Like village Inception.

Oh I forgot there is also a barn:

Please do not enter the barn without dog supervision.

Edward is coming I have to go goodbye for now.