Niki

"The Dog adopted the Ancsas in the spring of '48": so the story begins. The Ancsas are a middle-aged couple living on the outskirts of Budapest in a ruinous Hungary that is just beginning to wake up from the nightmare of World War II. The new Communist government promises to set things straight at least, and Mr. Ancsa, an engineer, is as eager to get to work building the future as he is to forget the past. (He and his wife lost their only son in the war.) The last thing he has time for is a little mongrel bitch, pregnant with her first litter. But Niki knows what she wants, and before long she is part of the Ancsa household.