Dogs

I have done a lot of talking about cats this summer but not much about dogs.  Dogs are basically the smae in Istanbul.  There's a huge population of stray dogs in the public eye that are taken care of by well, everyone.

The dogs are tagged by the city, tested and vaccinated.  You see the tag so you know they were checked by the city. I must say I have never seen a stray dog that was not tagged. I am sure there's some but none I have come in contact with.

Here's my personal story about a stray dog. So it was covid, Istanbul was QUIET.  Weird for a big city. Tourist areas were empty. I was sitting in the area between the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque in awe of the view. Some man walks up and sits RIGHT NEXT to me.  This is weird and uncomfortable. (and generally not done culturally, esp in such an empty place, now if it was jam packed, i could understand anyone grabbing the open seat).  After a couple sentences a big huge dog plops down right in between us.  Thank YOU!! I pet the dog and got up to get the heck away. so weird.  Even dogs know when you need them.