Just then another mongrel came bounding into the operating room. 'Here, Palma,' Demikhov called. The dog obeyed, nuzzling his leg and wagging its tail. 'See anything unusual about Palma?' Demikhov asked. He called attention to the fresh scars on Palma's chest and explained that six days ago Palma had been equipped with an extra heart, an operation which had also involved major changes in the dog's lung structure. But now it had recovered and seemed almost completely normal.Demikhov said the little dog was a 9 year-old bitch named Shavka. 'Shavka,' he explained, 'will be cut out for the part of the guest head. The host is over there.' He pointed to the operating table where a large mongrel lay limp under narcosis. Around its neck and shoulders was a close-shaved area similar to the band around Shavka's middle. While Shavka kept up her random barking. Demikhov said that there was no record of the big dog's origin. It was just a strya picked up in the streets by the dogcatcher. Demikhov called it 'Brodyaga,' or Tramp, and pointed out that it was indeed a lucky dog. 'You know the saying: two heads are better than one.'
First they mde an incision at the base of the large dog's neck, exposing the jugular vein, the aorta and aa segment of the spinal column. Next they drilled two holes through the bony part of one vertebra and threaded two plastic strings, one red and one white, through each of the holes. This part of the operation took 40 minutes. Shavka was put under narcosis and her head was wrapped in one towel, her torso in another, leaving exposed only the the shaved area round her middle.
Thus prepared, Shavka's limp form was placed on the operating table alongside Brodyaga. Goriainov made the incision, carefully rolling back Shavka's skin. Then he and Demikhov, deftly wielding the scalpel, needle and thread, proceeded with infinite pains to expose the small blood vessels, drawing a tight knot of thread around each one in turn as they carved gradually deeper into Shavka's vitals. Finally Demikhov severed the spinal column.
And on it goes. The surgery was successful, relatively speaking.Although the rest of the body had now been amputated, Shavka's head and forepaws still retained and used the lungs and heart. Now began the third and mot critical phase of the transplantation. The main blood vessels of Shavka's head had to be connected perfectly with the corresponding vessels of the host dog.