Obscenely Cute

I know….no one needs cute animal posts, but I can’t help myself. In Turkey in most areas (except extremely urban areas) there are wild dogs. Wild dogs. They are not coyotes, or wolves, but feral dogs. The reason being that Turkey does not have an SPCA. There are no animal shelters. There are dogs ad cats all over the place. While I don’t know about the cats, I know the dogs are regulated to a certain extent. They are not euthanized just because there are no shelters available.

While there are no animal shelters the dogs are collected by the city, tagged, spayed/neutered, immunized and released. But occasionally, dogs are faster than the dog catchers and then…

The obscenity occurs.

You cannot see them all in this photo, but there are eight ridiculously adorable puppies. They seem to grow at an amazing rate. Even though they are big (ish) they still look soft and edible. You just want to BITE them they are so cute, like the fat rolls on babies’ legs.

While there are packs of wild dogs roaming the area we live, they are surprisingly docile. Many restaurant owners leave out food and home owners leave out at least water. There are many dogs which “live” in certain areas. We know the are always there. They may bark at us if our dog is with us, but are very friendly. I have seen these wild dogs roll over to have their bellies scratched. When you speak to them they respond well. It is almost like having a pet on every corner. While we would love to take these dogs home (or at least some of them) they are big dogs. Many of they are mixed but with a lot of “Kangal” in them. You can see above in the photo there are several tan puppies with black faces. This is the national breed of Turkey. They are by characteristic, guard dogs, and can weigh up to 120 pounds. They also tend to be gentle and friendly, but are not ideal for apartments. But we visit out pets on the corner every chance we get.