While traveling around Istanbul, you might stumble upon many things—a cart selling sweet fried dough desserts, beautiful architecture, or even a pup traveling alone on the subway.
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One dog had been showing up to take the tram and train by himself for a few months before the locals started to wonder what he was getting up to. So, they decided to contact the authorities, to keep an eye on the pooch, but nothing could’ve prepared them for where this dog led them.
Passenger Pooch
One day, toward the end of the summer of 2021, people started to notice a surprising visitor joining them on their journeys around the city. A sweet dog was often seen traveling along with the passengers, keeping to himself, and riding along as if he was just another passenger.
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Once people started to see him more than once, they began to wonder where on earth the dog was coming from.
A Mystery
The dog was a mystery to everyone around him. He would travel around without a collar, and without another person with him, leading him from one train to another.
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Every morning, he would be there once again, traveling from one place to another, as if he really did have places to be and knew exactly how to get there. And yet, he seemed to be completely alone. People began to worry about where the dog’s owner was and where his home was.
Spotted Everywhere
The canine never seemed as if he was waiting for an owner to come and collect him. Instead, he independently and easily would take transportation. He often was seen on the metro, tram line, and even the ferries!
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In between his commutes, he hung out at the stations. If the weather was nice and sunny, the dog would be sprawled out outside, soaking up the warmth of the sun. If it was cold and rainy, he would be huddled up inside the stations. Passerbys were perplexed by the dog’s peculiar actions.
Getting On and Off the Train
People were particularly interested in the dog when he was getting on and off the train. Just by observing him, passengers could tell that he knew what he was doing.
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“He’ll stand on the side of the platform, and as soon as he hears the vibration of the train coming, he goes to the very end of the platform and then basically chases the train back and waits by the door. He knows exactly where the doors are,” Chris McGrath, a Getty Images photographer, who observed the pup for a day, told CNN.
Contacting the Authorities
Without a clear owner, people became worried about the lone dog that travels on the subways. And although he didn’t cause any issues or bother the other passengers, the pup made people concerned—mostly about his well-being rather than being a nuisance to others.
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After a few months of watching the dog navigate the transportation system, the public decided that contacting the authorities should be their next step to make sure that the dog was taken care of. Little did they know that the authorities had already caught wind of the traveling pup.
Public Transportation Gets Involved
The Public Transportation Department was alerted about the lost dog on the train. Aylin Erol, head of customer relations at Metro Istanbul, told CNN that the dog had caught their eye a few months before, so they were already keeping close tabs on him.
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The pup was special, from what Erol could tell. “Two months ago, we noticed a dog trying to use our trams, metros, and our trains and he knows where to go and he knows where to get out…It was quite interesting and we have started to follow him,” he said to CNN.
Taking Him to the Vet
Intrigued by the dog, public transit officials kept an extra close eye on him, but they did even more than that. They became protective of him, and instead of kicking the dog out or calling animal control to come and retrieve him, the transportation officers felt a need to care for him.
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Because it was clear that no one owned this dog, the officials took it upon themselves to bring him to a veterinary clinic and have him go through some regular health tests. And what they found surprised them.
The Health Tests
The dog was not particularly mangy. Still, one would expect a dog who spends most of his time on public transportation and is seemingly without a home to be a pretty dirty dog.
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The opposite was true. The tests came back and they showed that the pup had previously received the treatments he needed to be a clean and healthy animal. And he had already been sterilized—the dog’s green tag on his ear indicated that he has been neutered. But health tests weren’t the only thing the transit team did for the dog.
Tracking Him
The authorities also decided that their curiosities were too strong to leave unaddressed, and they wanted to make sure they knew where the pup was at all times. The only way to do that, while also letting him roam about freely, was to put a tracker on him.
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The officials gave him a microchip that had a tracking device in it. This chip would transmit his location to an application on a mobile device, which would show exactly where the dog had been traveling. And it turns out that the puppy got up to a whole lot more than they were expecting.
