Cappadokia, Turkey. May 2008
Yolldash was, or still is, a Turkish dog. He is a mixture with Kangal, a Turkish dog very much loved by the Turks. I met him on the streets of Kaimakly, a small town in Cappadokia, on the way to check a route we wanted to add to our 4 by 4 tours. He was very young and very much alone. We stopped by him and couldn’t resist taking him along. A dog with the Kangal's 6th finger shouldn't miss a chance to find a home in Cappadokia, we thought. We took him to a vet in Urgup and checked that all was ok with him. He was just a little too thin, apart from that he was well.
I gave him the best Turkish dog's name that I knew of. Yoll-Dash, A partner for the road, and so he was. As the guides team in the middle of preparations for a very busy season, we couldn't find the time, or didn't want to, to find him a home nor did we have a place for him. So he came with us everywhere and at night, as we stayed at one of the big hotels in Cappadokia- Tourist Hotel, we left him in the car, in a box we fixed for him, with hot bottles under the towels to keep him warm. It was May in Goreme and the nights were really cold. Somewhere along the second week, the team of the hotel has noticed us rushing at night to the car. As they learned about Yolldash, he became everyone's favorite dog. The hotel team gave him an empty pool in the middle of the hotel grass to stay in, and we started to keep him there during the days while we all went guiding our groups.
Yolldash was growing fast in that small pool and slowly managed to have a pick at us above the pool's wall as we left him. He wasn't a happy dog when being left alone but he never stayed alone for too long. Soon he was famous among our groups and the kids would come to play with him.
Yolldash lived with us at Tourist Hotel from May to September. Then, when the days were getting too hot the whole of the company, guides and operation, moved to Kachkar. Umit, one of our Turkish guides, took him along and found him a home. I have never seen him again but knew he was doing well and was a big dog. The owner said we have spoiled him too much and he was demanding that much attention in his new home as well. It wasn't a compliment to the dog or to the way we took care of him, Kangals are known to be very tough dogs. Farmers keep them as shepherd dogs to protect the life stock from wolfs. They normally feed them very little, the dogs always find their own food, hunting and scavenging. When I returned to Cappadokia in the end of that season to guide one single group, no one was there. Same routesthat I had known for years, same hotels and friends along the way, but all along there was something missing. Only as I returned toward Goreme in the end of the trip, I have noticed my anticipation for a meeting that will not accrue, with Yolldash.
For me, Yolldash was a true partner for the journey I had that year. One of the most difficult things for me as a guide is the fact that you are alone. Alone with the group. Alone with your decisions about the tour and so, with the filatures or the successes. You are surrounded by people almost 24 hours a day, but you are on your own as strong as the operation behind you might be. Having a dog in such a situation is no option at all. You take very little things with you, mostly stuff you need for the tour, and you move from place to place with no real home anywhere you go. That year, having so many groups in one place, the company I worked for had all the operation team and a huge team of guides together in the center of Cappadokia. I would normally take the long tours that went out of that center and so escaped the big crowd. But in the end of every week I had a few days with friends and with Yolldash. He was a big part of the happiness I experienced that season.
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