We will never know how this wonderful german shepherd mix found himself about to be dropped in the forest by the Istanbul Municipality.
We got there in time to rescue him and give him a temporary home at SHKD, the wonderful shelter in Hasdal.
He was one of the first dogs we tried to rehome, our group had not reached a critical mass yet and people were still trying to understand how the process of adoption would work. We were not even sure ourselves.
Years of failed efforts made us loose faith in the viability of rehoming in Turkey. The Lets Adopt experiment in Facebook has proved us that it is viable, although it is difficult and the chances of failure are still high.. of course, when it works it really works!
The winter set in and Timur spent most of it at the shelter.
There were a couple of people interested but in the end things didnt materialize.
It was our friend Banu Oztas the one that gave us the idea of establishing a minimum prerequisite of one dog per home before adopting. Giving a dog in adoption is a big responsibility and pet ownership is a new concept in Turkey so the only way we have to ensure that a dog will be adopted forever and not returned to the shelter after a few weeks is only to consider adoptive families that have a dog currently living in the home. By seeing the way their dog is treated and kept we get a very good idea of how the newcomer will fit into the house.
So… Timur went to live with Banu and her cute little cocker. The two dogs became instant friends… we knew there would be no problems.
And this is how Timur lives today… gone are the cold days of winter and the horrible Municipality people. He is looking forward to continue playing with his Cocker friend and to continue protecting his new family…
