Awesome - How A Little Girl Was Actually Raised By A Pack Of Dogs Has Us In Complete Awe
While other kids her age thrived under the nurturing guidance of loving parents, Oxana Malaya experienced an unconventional style of parenting: She was raised by a pack of dogs. When police were finally alerted to the situation, they rescued Oxana from the decrepit conditions she lived in and planned to re-acclimate her to modern society. They soon realized she was unlike any other child on the planet.
Anything But Ordinary
Although this may look like the face of a typical young woman, Oxana Malaya had anything but an ordinary upbringing. From the moment she was born in 1983, her life was filled with struggle.
Born Into Slums
To say she grew up impoverished would be a gross understatement. Oxana was raised in the slums of Novaya Blagoveshchensk, Ukraine, where it was a constant battle to survive. Some locals thought nothing of making horrendous choices.
Tumultuous Parenting
You'd like to think Oxana's parents were two loving people who understood their dire living situation and wanted to still give the best life possible to their daughter. However, her reality couldn't have been more different.
Finding Solace Elsewhere
Sadly, both her mother and father were neglectful alcoholics who paid little attention to their daughter's well-being. She realized at an early age her parents offered nothing in terms of care, so she found solace somewhere else.
Comfort With Canines
After her parents accidentally locked her out of the house at age three, she crawled into an open dog kennel. She curled up with the canines and found comfort in the way they seemed to welcome her in.
A Dreadful Existence
Her parents were so busy drinking themselves into oblivion they didn't even realize Oxana was missing. She started spending nearly all of her time with the dogs, living off their scraps. For five years this was her existence.
Hardly A Human Anymore
Miraculously, the police eventually received a tip from someone who noticed the young girl living in utter squalor. When they arrived, however, they encountered someone who hardly resembled a human being anymore.
Dog-Mirroring Behavior
Oxana might have had the physical body of a human, but her mannerisms completely mirrored those of a canine. When authorities first approached her, she charged at them on all fours, snapping wildly with her teeth. Oxana was beyond mentally damaged.
Labeled As 'Feral'
She lived with the dogs for so long, she lost nearly all ability to act like a person. She made grunting sounds and gnawed at everything around her. She was officially labeled as "feral."
Desperate Attempt To Help
Oxana was part of a miniscule demographic of neglected children who turned to animals for parental guidance. The young girl was brought to workers at the Feral Children Project in a desperate attempt to help her regain her human characteristics.
Acclimating Oxana
The very first step in acclimating Oxana into the world was helping her learn to walk upright. After spending so many years on all fours, it was a wobbly beginning. However, Oxana slowly began to move like a human.
Determined To Overcome
A majority of the legwork done for Oxana's mental rehabilitation took place at a foster home in the Ukraine, with doctors who specialized in helping severely handicapped children. They were determined to get Oxana on the right track.
Progress Continues
It took years to undo the damage Oxana suffered from such a disastrous upbringing, but she slowly began speaking simple words and learning basic tasks, like tying her shoes and brushing her teeth.
That Past Will Always Remain
Doctors and experts knew it was likely impossible to remove all of the trauma that Oxana's kennel-life inflicted on her, but over time, she made incredible progress. However, her past would always remain in her thoughts.
A Unique Perspective
Oxana would never forget eating dirty food from trash bins and barking wildly whenever encountering discomfort. However, this gave her an incredibly unique perspective on the animal world, and it was one she would never completely lose.
Understanding Animal Mentalities
Her connection to animals made her an ideal candidate to work alongside them. She understood their mentality better than anyone who didn't spend their formative years looking to them for a sense of belonging.
A Subconscious Connection
She found supervised work at a local farm tending to the livestock. It was almost as if the animals felt the struggle she lived through, and she was able to subconsciously speak to them through her gentle touch.
Media Frenzy
Oxana's story garnered tons of attention once the media caught wind of her miraculous recovery. She was interviewed on a Ukrainian talk show where she divulged her incredible journey from animal to human. She was even featured on a groundbreaking television series.
RAISED WILD
An anthropologist named Mary-Ann Ochota visited the farm where Oxana worked for her show RAISED WILD on Animal Planet. She tracked down the rehabilitated young woman and chatted about the horrifying truth behind feral kids.
A Turnaround Worth Celebrating
Oxana Malaya's story was one of the most heartbreaking when it came to feral children, but her miraculous turnaround made it unique — most never recover. However, experts pointed out that a childhood with animals doesn't always result in severe mental deterioration.
Tippi Degre
Tippi Degre offers a much sunnier alternative to Oxana's upbringing. Like any mother and father, Tippi's parents wanted to impart important values to their daughter. During the first 10 years of her life, Tippi learned a level of respect for nature most adults don't even have.
An Exotic Childhood
This was entirely due to the environment she was raised in. After she entered the world in June 1990, her parents, Sylvie and Alain, raised her in Namibia around tons of exotic wildlife.
Animal Bonds
Tippi was named after actress Tippi Hedren who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, which made sense considering the role animals played in her life from the very beginning. Early on, she even made a four-legged best friend.
Abu the Elephant
At the ripe age of one, she met — and immediately embraced — an elephant named Abu, and the two were instantly smitten with each other. She also became quite close with another animal.
Taming a Leopard
She and a leopard adopted by a local farmer spent a lot of time together. The cat was never aggressive towards Tippi, but of course, her parents made sure she knew the repercussions of mistreating the animals.
Safety Instincts
While most other kids in the world are taught the dangers of talking to strangers or looking both ways before crossing a street, Tippi had deadly predators to look out for. But, she knew full-well how to carry herself.
Huge Opportunities
Her parents never regretted her upbringing. Her mother said, "For me it was incredible to think you offer all of this to a child... compared to what I would be able to offer a child in the city."
No Fear
While Sylvie and Alain definitely had concerns about their daughter's safety, they realized she had a fearless demeanor. It didn't matter how large or small a creature was, Tippi approached it with fascination and respect.
A Unique Perspective
Tippi managed to form a special connection with almost every animal she came into contact with. Growing up with the freedom of the wilderness all around her, she developed an innate understanding of the mindset of animals.
Hugging a Bullfrog
The photos Tippi's parents were able to capture while she grew were astounding. No parent has a photo of their child giving a massive bullfrog an intimate hug, but then again, they're not Tippi's parents.
Ostrich Companionship
Even an animal like an ostrich, which normally is scared of humans, allowed Tippi to hop on its back for a ride. This particular ostrich was owned by a local farmer, but it still displayed extreme trust in the young girl.
At Peace
This picture perfectly sums up Tippi's relationship with the animal world. With outstretched arms and a meditative look on her face, she's completely in sync with the energy around her. People even compared her to a very famous Disney character.
Real-Life Jungle Book
Mowgli from Disney's The Jungle Book was raised in the wilderness and developed close bonds with animals, and those were the footsteps Tippi followed in. But, it wasn't just the animals who welcomed her presence.
Embraced by the Himba Tribe
The people of the Himba tribe who lived in Africa's Kalahari Desert welcomed Tippi with open arms, and they treated her like one of their own. She learned how to forage for food and speak their language.
A Change of Scenery
She was immediately accepted by the other children, as well, who found her unique persona incredibly amusing. Unfortunately, when she eventually left Namibia, other children weren't nearly as welcoming.
Mainstream Schooling
At age 10, Tippi entered the world of public school. Because she didn't spend much time around kids, she had a difficult time adjusting, and her parents eventually homeschooled her. But, she managed to graduate high school and go to college.
Tippi's Mission
She attended college in Paris at La Sorbonne Nouvelle University and graduated with a degree in film. This degree ended up shaping the course of her life. Her goal was to document the role animals played in human lives.
Film Master
She became a documentarian, and using the film skills she learned throughout college, she made several movies about African wildlife. And, even though she befriended all beasts, there was one animal that spoke to her spirit.
Her Favorite Animal
Her best friend may have been an elephant, but Tippi admitted she always felt a special connection to cheetahs. As a child, she would wake up early and watch in awe as they roamed the African plains.
Protecting Her Privacy
Nowadays, Tippi leads a very private life; she had plenty of cameras following her around as a child documenting her unique upbringing. Luckily, she still had parents who helped along the way. She knew how lucky she really was.
Especially when she considered Marina Chapman. She doesn't really know much about her life before being taken. She believes she was born sometime in the 1950s, raised by a family in Columbia. This was where disaster eventually struck...
Marina doesn't know what her given name was, as she chose the name "Marina" later in life. But she does remember being stolen and the nightmare that lasted for years.
According to Marina, not long before her fifth birthday, she was playing in her parents' vegetable garden. She was sitting down picking peas when a strong arm suddenly jerked her backward and a rag full of chloroform was placed over her mouth.
The last thing she remembered before passing out from the chemical was two people placing her into the back of a van, slamming the doors, and speeding away. She had no idea if she'd ever see her parents or anyone she ever knew for that matter, again.
Marina could do nothing but think about her mother and father. Why was she kidnapped? Did their family have enemies? She even briefly thought her parents were behind it all as a punishment for picking through their garden.
When Marina finally awoke, she found herself crammed in the back of a van with a group of whimpering children. Whoever her captors were, they had been busy scooping up other kids too. Marina soon fell into unconsciousness again...
The young girl woke up to the feeling of slaps on her face. She thought they were human hands at first, but quickly realized they were massive leaves. Her captors had hoisted her over their shoulders and were carrying her deep into the thick Colombian jungle.
Marina was groggy and couldn't make out the details of the people she was with, but out of nowhere, they started to run. It seemed like they were afraid of something, and after running for a few minutes, they simply dropped her on the ground and fled.
Scared, hungry, and alone, Marina looked for a place to sleep. She dug out a small trench by a tree stump and curled up into a ball. The sun woke her up the next morning, and when she opened her eyes, she was completely surrounded...by monkeys.
Marina had no idea what to do until suddenly, one of the animals dropped a piece of fruit close to her. She scampered over to it and ate. Were the monkeys actually trying to feed her?
Weeks turned into months, months into years, and Marina claims she grew incredibly close with the primates over that time -- they were like family. To this day, she attributes her jungle survival to them. However, she would eventually be stripped, yet again, from a family...
One afternoon a group of poachers entered the forest. The now 10-year-old Marina hid behind a thick tree and watched as they used their machetes to carve a path through the vegetation. One of the poachers was a woman who appeared kind and gentle, so Marina came out of hiding and approached the group...
The group was in complete disbelief when they saw Marina. The young girl's skin was covered in dirt, she was walking on all fours, and her hair was nearly as long as her body. The poachers brought Marina out of the jungle to the Colombian city of Cucuta, but tragically, she was far from safe.
The group brought Marina to a run-down brothel on the outskirts of the city where she was sold to a woman named Ana-Karmen. Marina doesn't know how long she was there for, but life was miserable. However, one day while Ana-Karmen was occupied, Marina escaped.
Now Marina was homeless, in a big city. Luckily, she banded together with some other homeless children, and they were able to scavenge for food and shelter when needed. It wasn't ideal, but it was far better than life at the brothel. Marina eventually landed a job as a maid, but not everything was as it seemed...
The family members she worked for were actually notorious criminals, and they enslaved Marina. But, while captive yet again, she met a neighbor named Maruja. She secretly bought Marina a plane ticket to the city of Bogota, where Marina was welcomed by Maruja's daughter. But, was Marina finally safe?
Miraculously, Maruja's daughter showed Marina the love and affection she had been missing for most of her life. Marina got a lucrative job at a textile factory and eventually followed Maruja's family to Bradford, England. There, she fell in love with a man named John and the two wed.
Marina has been happily married for years now; she has two daughters and grandchildren, as well! She wrote a book called The Girl With No Name detailing the events in her life, and she still considers herself "the woman who was raised by monkeys."
Although the events of her life might seem difficult to believe, Marina swears by her story. She was stripped of a family at four years old, but she considers the years she spent with the monkeys to have had an incredibly positive effect on her outlook.
Most people would never have had the will to survive the events Marina did. Finding yourself in the middle of the jungle would almost certainly be a death sentence, but Marina miraculously bonded with the environment around her, and she had the monkeys to thank for it.
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