Animal encounters:
In Kyrenia, there is an animal rescue center. Since Haley has had a hard time finding things to do that interest her here, I made a note to myself to take her there and see if she could volunteer. Then I simply forgot to take her there. Occasionally I would see a van around town that said “Kyrenia Animal Rescue” on the side, but there was just never the right time to check it out.
Across the street from our house is an eclectic little farm. The house is pretty big and has had an addition or two. Just a short distance from the house is a series of buildings and fenced in cages and aviaries that are gathered together in a sort of rectangle with a pond in the center. In the center of the pond is a bird cage that is shaped like a pear, suspended by a post above the water and contains several yellow and multi colored birds. Some resemble parakeets some look like cockatiels. Roaming around the pond is a variety of ducks and a gaggle of geese, mostly white. The cages are home to a variety of chickens some I have never seen before, like the enormous gigantor chickens that have feathers on their legs and are the size of a chimpanzee…. Absolutely huge! There are peacocks, ginney fowl, turkeys, and these were just the ones I could recognize.
In some of the other corrals were a specked white and red horse, almost a strawberry roan, a small mule or a large donkey-not sure, and a black horse. Next to them are some homes for the goats. The white billy goat who rules the pen was the size of a Shetland pony! With dramatic, majestic curving horns which looked like the horns I’ve seen in movies where someone has to blow a horn and they use an animal horn and it’s curved…can’t think of the movie but I know I’ve seen this.
Ian loves to walk past this menagerie and he especially loves to talk with the male turkey. He is huge and shows off his puffed up display of feathers whenever we walk by and gives us a chorus of “gobble gobble gobble gobble,” and Ian sings right back. Yeah, it’s totally cute! I have been wanting to meet the people who live there for this entire first month, yet could never find the right time or the right gift or the nerve to do it.
Then one day last week, Haley, Ian and I were standing on her balcony looking at the Mediterranean when we heard a commotion down below. Two children were hitting some bushes with sticks shouting, and then a dog yelped. We went to check it out, and found a sweet terrified adorable pup stuck in the brambles. The children were trying to scare it out, but the poor dear was stuck in the vines. It was like a raspberry bush thick twisty with sharp spines, but no raspberries. Darn.
One thing was for sure, this dog was not going to move without some motivation. “Dave, we need some cheese!” I yelled, and he dutifully ran up to the house and brought back the smelly old cheese we hadn’t the nerve to eat. We broke off the cheese into little bits that we tossed into the brambles, and he began to creep out. We needed clippers and gloves to cut away the annoying vines. I stood precariously on a broken old pallet reaching for the dog while he crept forward to the cheese. Eventually we got him out, a thin, young, sweet thing. I asked the children who were hitting the bush if they spoke English and the darling little girl said “Yes.” I asked her how old she was and she said 11 and that she learned English in school. “Is this your puppy?” She said “Yes,” then she said “No.” “Do you know where he lives?” “Yes” was her reply. “Can you take me there with the puppy?” “Yes, go straight turn left.” We all walked together, Ian running ahead, Haley holding the dear dog, and I trying to talk to the little girl. “What is your name?” “Ashagu”? She said; I still can’t quite pronounce it right. “You’re sure this is the way to the dog’s house?” “Yes,” she said.
What I soon found out was that this was her house. I met her mother and with much gesturing and hand signals I figured out that they did not know the dog, nor where it lived, but they invited me to coffee! This was a very humble house under construction adjacent to the animal cages I described earlier. Three rooms, one finished, the other two had no roof, but had concrete walls and floor. There was a working washing machine with a Winnie the Pooh sticker on the side, (really?), a small sink, tiny stove with oven and a refrigerator. Wow! This was her home. There is so much more I would love to know: Does she work? Why does she live next to the animals? Does she have a husband? What does he do? What is her relationship with the owners of the big white house? But I couldn’t quite get that far. I was able to get her name “Mirdina,” and I learned that she was from mainland Turkey. She gave me a heaping bowl of fruit as I left, filled with figs and plums, a sweet colorful fragrant gift. Her smile was radiant and I was so happy to have a friend in my neighborhood, even if I couldn’t speak to her.
I invited her to coffee at my house and she said she would come Monday at 1pm, after Ashagu got out of school. Today was Monday and I wanted everything to be perfect. I made brownies with hazelnuts and chunks of Belgium chocolate. I had a bowl of cashews and tea biscuits ready. Tea cups standing at attention waiting to be filled… I had a little bowl of M&M’s to top off the treats. I sat on the front steps at 1 pm waiting for her. At 1:30, though not discouraged, I thought I would go in and hang out my laundry. By 2:30 I assumed something had come up. At 3:30 Dave drove by on his way into town and said he saw the little girl moving rocks from the street into the farm.
I made up a plate of treats and took them to her around 5pm. I convinced my children to come, Ian bounded ahead, Haley reluctantly came saying, “I don’t know how to speak to her!” and John nervously said “All I can say is Mehraba” Hello, “What if they start talking to me? “ “Just smile and nod,” I said. Ashagu met us and smiled, she took Haley, John and Ian to see the animals. I went in to see Mirdina and she smiled. She gave me a huge hug and gestured to the new ceiling! It was just put up today and with gestures and facial expressions I could see she was sorry she couldn’t make the tea, and I understood that she had to stay home to oversee the project. She tried to find a clean cup in the pile of dishes on the table waiting to be washed. Wow, how could she hold all this together? I told her I had to go to make dinner for my family and she seemed to understand. She gave me a huge hug and was so grateful for the brownies and M&M’s I left. Ashagu was still showing the kids around the farm. Ian was gleefully chasing some small chickens and then took after the geese who made a booming protest. Haley and John were petting the horses with beaming smiles. As I walked up, Ashagu put some grain in my hand and let me feed the horses. She gave me a brush to work on their mane.
After chasing Ian chasing the geese, I saw the Peacocks and one of the males was showing off his feathers. I was impressed with his display, and Ashagu gestured to me to wait and she disappeared. She returned with two amazing peacock feathers as a gift, a beautiful thoughtful generous gift that I have proudly displayed on my mantle.
What happened to the puppy? We kept him that night tied up on the front porch resting on towels. He curled up and seemed happy to be out of the torturous bush. He was black and white, part terrier with a little goatee of white hairs and black spots around his dark brown adoring eyes. His ears perked up into the perfect triangles that everyone who looks at him find irresistible. We all fell in love with this dog, with the exception of Dave. It was a windy night and he wouldn’t let us bring the flea infested pathetic creature into our house, and of course he was right. I couldn’t sleep very well though thinking about how cold he must have been and I got up twice to cover him with a towel.
The next day Haley and I drove 45 minutes on a windy road leading up the coastal mountains to the Kyrenia Animal Rescue. We stepped out of the car and Haley was beside herself with joy. 200 dogs sang out in a cumulative voice that echoed off the canyon walls reverberating back and forth into a deafening frenzy of sound. Haley loved it. We took our pup in and they took him. We couldn’t give a donation but we could donate time and they needed dog walkers. We took some dogs out on the mountain trails and had a blast. As we left, one of the workers said “Your dog won’t be here long. Some people who have seen him have already expressed interest in him.” Haley said that this was the best day of her life!
Today, believe it or not as we were making dinner, Haley said, “I see another dog mom, by the brambles.” She went to check it out, and as I write this, the last pup’s little brother is curled up on our porch patiently waiting for his turn to go to the Animal rescue. We are going back Weds.
One final encounter: Last Saturday afternoon, Dave was washing some dishes and looked outside to see a black snake at least 4 feet long slither into a whole in our rock fence! Yeiks. The night before some friends saw a small snake in our driveway and killed it. I wonder if the big one was it’s mother…after some research we learned this must have been a Cyprus Whip Snake, very long, but not very dangerous. We also learned that the Blunt Nosed Viper, the most poisonous snake in Europe likes to live in Lapta, our town. Yeiks again…
To see pictures of the pup check out my picasa photo site.
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