March | 2013 | Cukurbagli's Blog

I was down in Kaş this afternoon enjoying the warmth when a big cloud came over the horizon to sit right on top of me. Just as I pushed the door to the bank to pay my monthly Social Security Health payment my phone rang. I saw that it was a friend of mine in my village and when I answered she had bad news for me. My white dog, Molly, was round at her house and had been chased there by a very angry village woman shouting and screaming.

Dogs that upset the local domestic animals don’t last long here, so I was dismayed to hear that Molly had been caught red handed, more correctly yellow mouthed by the owner of chickens. It seems she had discovered where the chickens laid their eggs and had been seen with yolk dripping from her mouth. Normally she looks as though butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth and won’t touch anything edible in my house unless I first put it in her dinner bowl or physically give it to her.

She has made a serious error of judgement this time.

Luckily the woman who owns the chickens (her name is Safiye) is a neighbour and friend of mine and I have bought some eggs to replace the ones eaten. I don’t know how many Molly ate but I bought a couple of dozen so hopefully that will placate Safiye and compensate her for the eggs.

Molly is going to have to have some training in order to teach her to leave the eggs alone, I don’t know how I’m going to do it, hopefully I can find some ideas or lessons on the internet but if not I’ll just have to come up with something myself. Wish me luck.

While I’m talking about dogs I thought I’d update the story last week about Aslan. I took him to the vet in Kalkan a few miles away for some tests and it was found that he has a disease called Leish Maniasis. This is a particularly nasty disease that dogs can suffer from and if not treated it can kill them. All the symptoms that he had are typical of the disease and Hasan the vet had no trouble in diagnosing him, he even had a little blood test specifically designed to confirm it. That was very disappointing but I bought the necessary medication from the pharmacy and started him on it then took him back to my neighbours and showed them how to administer the pills. There is sufficient medication to last for a month and I’ll get some more, it’s not expensive, when this lot runs out. We’ll just have to wait and see how he does.

Spring is with us again and we’ve just had the almond blossom decorating the village. There are thousands of almond trees in the village and great drifts of white and pink could be seen from my house. They only look a kind of muddy grey until you get closer so here’s a picture to show you what it’s like, one of mine in close-up and in the background an example of what the rest of the village looks like.

All of the other trees are budding or bursting their buds, it’s great to see all this growth in spring, easy to understand why so many people used to worship the spring Gods. On the other hand all the weeds are growing at an alarming rate, I’m going to have to get out the strimmer pretty soon.

For the last few days I’ve had a visitor, Aslan, my neighbour’s dog, he’s been sleeping on my front step on a big cushion I gave him. He has been very unwell and I’ve been trying to nurse him back to health. I gave him worming tablets, eye drops, antiseptic on two of his paws and some stuff get rid of fleas and ticks. He is very much brighter today and has a bowl of chicken soup this afternoon in addition to breakfast and dinner that I give him anyway. He needs building up since the worms sapped all of his strength and every time he shakes himself clouds of dried skin fly all over the place.

My dogs usually play with him but won’t go near him at the moment. After I gave him the chicken soup he followed me down the garden when I went to check on the fruit tree buds then he had a roll around in the long grass and made a nest to have a sleep in the warm sun. He’s not a pretty or handsome dog, in fact he doesn’t look very nice at all especially with that spiked collar my neighbour insists that he wears, but he is a big softie really.