Cats

Cats are recurring animals in “Heart of a Dog,” but their significance extends beyond background presence: they expose Sharik’s possessive street instincts, repeatedly disrupt the household, and become the focus of Sharikov’s appointed work for the Moscow Cleansing Department. The contrast between the dog’s reactions and the transformed creature’s conduct makes cats a measure of how little simple humanization has settled into ordinary discipline.

Street Encounters and Sharik’s Instincts

On the snowy street, Sharik encounters a stray cat near the gentleman who has taken pity on him. He fears that the gentleman might share his sausage with the animal, whom Sharik regards as a thief, and drives it up a drainpipe by baring his teeth. His alarm is not disinterested: having won the gentleman’s attention and food, he guards that newly acquired favor against another stray. The episode gives the cat a place in Sharik’s own calculations about scarcity and attachment, rather than treating it merely as scenery.

The gentleman responds to Sharik’s devotion by giving him another piece of food, smaller than the first. The exchange ties the cat’s brief appearance to the dog’s developing bond with his benefactor: Sharik’s hostility helps preserve the exclusive attention he values. Cats thus enter the story early as a stimulus that draws out both his animal reflexes and his capacity for attachment.

The Household’s Cat Problem

Cats also represent a recurring breach of the household’s rules. When a cat is suspected of being inside the flat, Bormenthal pursues it through the corridor and hall, while Zina rushes out of the kitchen and collides with Philip Philipovich. The professor angrily reminds her that she has been told not to let cats into the flat, then orders Bormenthal to calm the patients waiting elsewhere. The incident links the animal’s presence to the practical demands and carefully guarded routines of the medical household.

The pursuit ends in a chain of disorder at the bathroom and kitchen. The bathroom door is locked; from within come the sounds of objects breaking and Sharikov threatening someone. Water runs into the bathtub as the doctors try to force the door. A large tabby cat then breaks through the high glass transom between the bathroom and kitchen, lands on a platter and breaks it, before escaping through the back door. The cat’s sudden route through the flat turns a chase into a domestic disruption, with the shattered glass and broken platter registering the consequences of the pursuit. The scene also makes the household’s attempt to contain the animal—and the commotion associated with it—visibly fail.

Sharikov’s Pursuit and Its Consequences

After Sharikov has become part of the household, his behavior toward cats alarms Bormenthal. Bormenthal warns that Sharikov could become dangerous under Shvonder’s influence and points to the way he goes after cats, describing the contradiction through the phrase “A man with the heart of a dog.” The remark treats the attacks as more than an inconvenient habit: they reveal the persistence of the dog’s impulses in a figure now moving through human institutions and political relationships.

Philip Philipovich rejects the idea that this response is fixed. He calls Sharikov’s reaction to cats temporary and attributes it to a lack of discipline, predicting that it could be corrected in a few weeks and that Sharikov would stop chasing them after another month or so. His confidence contrasts with Bormenthal’s fear of what Sharikov may become. Cats therefore become a point of disagreement between the doctors over whether Sharikov’s conduct is a manageable habit or evidence of a deeper danger.

Official Work and the Return of the Instinct

The connection between Sharikov and cats becomes institutional when he announces that he has taken a job. His typewritten appointment makes him responsible for the sub-department of the Moscow Cleansing Department that eliminates vagrant quadrupeds, including cats. Sharikov confirms that Shvonder arranged the position. The role converts the pursuit that had troubled the household into authorized employment, placing his hostility toward stray animals inside an official structure.

When asked about his smell, Sharikov says that he spent the previous day strangling cats. Philip Philipovich reacts with a shudder and then grabs Sharikov by the throat; Bormenthal’s look is also described as threatening. The exchange gives the cats’ repeated presence its sharpest consequence: what had been framed as a temporary instinct and a domestic nuisance has become a job carried out against animals. The episode also undercuts the professor’s earlier assurance that discipline would soon end the chasing. Across the novel’s scenes, cats connect Sharik’s hunger and attachment, the flat’s efforts at order, and Sharikov’s transformation into a human officeholder whose work continues a distinctly canine pursuit.