On a bitterly cold night in rural Ukraine, a little girl who should have been asleep in her bed ended up outside in the dark.
She was just three years old.
By morning, she had found warmth in the only place available to her: a dog kennel.
That decision, made by a neglected child trying to survive the cold, became one of the most disturbing childhood cases ever documented. Oxana Malaya, later widely described as a “feral child,” would spend nearly five years living among dogs after allegedly being abandoned by her parents.
When authorities finally found her at age seven, she could not speak, moved on all fours, barked, slept on the floor, and behaved more like an animal than a child.
One freezing night changed the course of Oxana Malaya’s life forever
Oxana, also known as Oksana Oleksandrivna Malaya, was born on November 4, 1983, in the village of Nova Blahovishchenka in Hornostaivka Raion, Kherson Oblast, then part of the Ukrainian SSR.
According to doctors and medical records, she was a normal child at birth.
Oxana grew up in poverty, in a home reportedly marked by drinking and neglect. Her parents, by multiple accounts, ignored her for much of her childhood. Years later, when asked about those early years, Oxana reduced the dysfunction to a few plain words.
“Mum had too many kids,” she recounted in a 2023 interview with 60 Minutes. “We didn’t have enough beds.”
At some point when she was three, the neglect became something even worse. One account says her drunk father left her outside overnight. Another says she was simply locked out of the house one night and no one came looking for her.
Either way, the result was the same. A toddler was left out in the cold, alone. Desperate for warmth, Oxana followed the family dog, Naida, into the family’s dog kennel.
She did not come back inside.
Oxana remained there for nearly five years, living in and around the kennel and among a pack of dogs that became her only constant companions. She reportedly survived on raw meat and scraps and learned to function in the world immediately around her, which was no longer a human one.
She gradually stopped speaking.
When authorities finally located Oxana, the dogs around her treated her as one of their own
Instead of human language, Oksana learned to communicate in barks and growls.
“I would talk to them, they would bark and I would repeat it,” she later said. “That was our way of communication.”
Oksana slept on the floor. She moved on all fours. She ate and handled basic hygiene in ways that doctors later said resembled a dog’s behavior.
For nearly five years, her living situation appears to have gone unnoticed. One account says that changed in 1991 when Oxana barked at a neighbor, exposing what had been happening.
By the time officials found Oxana, the dogs around her appeared to see her as part of the pack.
They were protective and would not let police get near her. Officers had to lure the dogs away with food before they could reach the little girl and take her into custody.
Social services removed her from her parents’ custody.
Those who first examined Oxana said years without normal human contact had deeply affected her development and behavior.
“She was more like a little dog than a human child,” the director of the institute told 60 Minutes.
“She used to show her tongue when she saw water and she used to eat with her tongue and not her hands.”
Oxana was taken into institutional care and was eventually transferred to a foster home for mentally disabled children in Barabol, in Ovidiopol Raion of Odesa Oblast. There, the long process of rehabilitation began.
As for her parents, there are no available reports of criminal charges or legal punishment being filed against them.
Oxana underwent years of therapy and education aimed at her behavioral and educational problems
The process of rehabilitation was slow and highly specialized. She had entered care with almost none of the basic skills children normally gain through ordinary family life. Even so, she began to make progress.
Though she reportedly did not speak any human language until she was almost eight, she later learned to speak fluently and intelligibly. She also gained other everyday skills that once seemed lost to her.
Still, her doctors remained cautious, with most not believing she would ever be completely rehabilitated into normal society.
As she grew older, Oxana was taught to suppress the dog-like behavior and was eventually able to work on a farm milking cows. In later accounts, she was described as living in a special care home and spending much of her time looking after animals.
But rehabilitation did not erase the damage.
Reports about her adulthood have consistently said she remained intellectually impaired. Some researchers and later accounts described her level of development and intellectual capacity as comparable to that of a six-year-old, even after years of therapy.
Oxana would later speak about the damage caused by the media’s coverage of her story
In 2013, Oxana appeared on the Ukrainian talk show Hovoryt Ukraina and spoke publicly about the life she had been forced to build after a childhood of neglect, isolation, and survival.
By then, her story had been told and retold for years, often through the most sensational details, but what came through in that interview was something quieter. Oxana said she wanted to be treated like a normal human being, and admitted it hurt when people reduced her to the “dog-girl” in the news.
Beneath the headlines was a woman still carrying the ache of being left behind.
For all the years that had passed, she held no ill will towards her family, and wanting nothing more than to reconnect. She said she wanted her brothers to visit her more often, and said the greatest dream of her life was to see her biological mother again.
She also revealed she had gotten herself a boyfriend, and that her life working with animals on the farm was peaceful.
What lingered most heavily, however, was loneliness.
Image credits: 60 Minutes Australia/YouTube
The years she spent among dogs had begun in abandonment and cold, yet those animals had also been the companions that kept her alive and warm when no human being did.
“When I feel lonely… I crawl on all fours,” she said. “Because I have nobody, I spend my time with dogs, I go for walks and do anything I want to. Nobody notices that I walk on all fours.”
Oxana Malaya’s case became central to the nature versus nurture debate in academia
Cases like Oxana’s suggested that early development can be profoundly altered when a child is denied ordinary human contact and socialization.
Scientists have broadly moved toward the view that both nature and nurture matter. The harder question has always been which exerts the stronger force in specific circumstances. Oxana’s case has often been cited as powerful evidence of how deeply the environment can shape a child.
In more recent years, that conversation has overlapped with epigenetics, the study of how environmental pressures can affect the way genes function. That has helped popularize the idea of “nature through nurture,” which argues that inherited traits and lived experience are constantly interacting.
Oxana Malaya was just 3 years old when her parents locked her outside, leaving her to survive with stray dogs in rural Ukraine.
For the next five years, the animals became the only family she ever knew.
When authorities finally found her around age 7, they… pic.twitter.com/FS4SHBHpqF
— Creepy.org (@creepydotorg) June 1, 2026
This line of research is often discussed in relation to extreme emotional distress, mental illness, and personality disorders. One example frequently raised is psychopathy, where some researchers argue that a genetic predisposition can be worsened or activated by severe environmental stress.
“Epigenetic stressors during early childhood can make certain genetic traits like the hallmarks of psychopathy turn against someone in a bad way,” wrote Dr. Caroline Leaf.
“The cortisol from trauma or being abandoned can shape how they interact with others by affecting the development of their ability to socialize.”
Oxana’s case has long been compared to that of “Genie,” the 1957 case of a girl kept in total isolation
“Genie” is the pseudonym given to an American girl born in 1957 whose case became one of the most studied in linguistics and abnormal child psychology.
When Genie was around 20 months old, her father, Clark Wiley, began keeping her locked in a room. After his own mother lost her life to a drunk driver, he reportedly spiraled into rage and depression.
He kept Genie in near-total isolation and forbade others from interacting with her.
The case came to the attention of Los Angeles County child welfare authorities in November 1970, when she was 13 years and seven months old. By then, the damage was so severe that doctors at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles reportedly called her “the most profoundly damaged child they had ever seen.”
She weighed under 60 pounds and initially appeared far younger than she really was.
Like Oxana, Genie had missed the ordinary developmental window for language. Scientists quickly focused on her case, hoping it might help answer questions about critical periods in language acquisition.
Over time, Genie made substantial gains in her mental and psychological development. She developed strong nonverbal communication and gradually learned some social skills. She continued to acquire vocabulary and other language abilities.
But, unlike Oxana, she never fully learned a first language.
Susan Curtiss, the linguistics professor who studied and befriended Genie, concluded the window for full language development begins closing when a child is between five and 10 years old.
After that, some vocabulary and forms of communication can still be learned, but grammar and sentence-building may remain permanently limited.
As of June 2026, Oxana Malaya is alive in Ukraine, is 42 years old, and continues to live in state-run care in the Odessa region.
“Animals are kinder than humans,” a reader wrote
Not everyone hates their job. In fact, some people find their work to be enjoyable, fulfilling, and exciting. But even that isn’t enough to stay loyal to a company, because if you can’t stand your boss, every day will be a struggle.
After repeatedly being denied a raise for years, one man finally reached his breaking point at work. And despite his boss’s claims that the company needed to save money, they ended up spending way more on hiring new workers. Below, you’ll find the full story that the employee’s teen posted on Reddit, as well as some of the replies invested readers shared.
This person’s father has been a loyal employee for years
Image credits: fxquadro / Envato (not the actual photo)
But after repeatedly being denied a raise, he finally decided to branch out on his own
Image credits: wirestock / Envato (not the actual photo)
Image credits: ShiggySimp_UwU
Employees feeling underappreciated is a widespread issue in the workplace
Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
When you first start working at a new company, there’s typically an unspoken rule that you have to prove your worth. You might want to go above and beyond every day to ensure that you’re adding value to the team and proving to your boss that you were the right choice.
After doing your best for a few years, though, you might expect something in return. After all, the vast majority of us aren’t working because we love it, but because we have to put food on the table and roofs over our heads. And if you haven’t ever received a raise, you might begin to wonder what the heck you’re still doing there.
A 2022 study found that 58% of employees feel underappreciated at work. Meanwhile, two-thirds of employees say that they would strongly consider quitting if they felt unappreciated in the workplace. And even 54% of managers admit that it’s common for workers to quit because they lack recognition.
Unsurprisingly, one of the best ways to tell employees that they are valued is by giving them a raise. And while it may not be possible to see a raise during your first year at a company, experts at Indeed recommend asking for a salary increase annually if you’ve been with the company for several years.
When employees take on more responsibilities, get promotions, or stay with the company for years, they deserve to be rewarded for their hard work. Not to mention the fact that salaries should be competitive and reflect the cost of living if the company wants to retain talent.
Offering a competitive salary and benefits is one of the best ways to retain talent
Image credits: Alexander Grey / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Unfortunately, companies don’t always do what’s right for their workers, even if they are aware of the statistics. The Pew Research Center found that the majority of workers in the U.S. who quit a job in 2021 cited low pay as a major reason. Other significant reasons cited include no opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected at work.
Many employees who “revenge quit” in 2025 also noted that low salaries, a lack of raises, and feeling undervalued were their top motivators. The cost of living has gone up about 25% over the past five years, so it’s no surprise that workers are demanding more for their efforts.
Despite what companies may tell you, keeping employees satisfied isn’t rocket science. 77% of workers say that they feel loyal to their company when they are recognized for their hard work and accomplishments.
Zendesk explains that support, inclusion, and professional development opportunities are crucial to keeping employees happy. Competitive pay and benefits are significant factors, but workers also want a healthy work-life balance, their milestones to be celebrated, and flexible work schedules.
The world is rapidly changing, and it’s important for employers to get with the times. Or they’ll constantly be wasting time and money on bringing in new hires.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this situation in the comments below, pandas. Do you think this boss got what was coming to him? Feel free to weigh in, and then you can read another article from Bored Panda featuring similar workplace drama right here.
Later, the author responded to several readers and provided more background information
Readers applauded the author’s father and noted that this is more common than they realize
Some even shared similar stories of their own
