Walking the dog

Today I went, for the first time, but probably not the last, to the local council (Didim Belediye) dog and cat sanctuary for strays and street animals and joined a regular group of local expat animal lovers, who go by the acronym of CODA (Care Of Didim Animals)  giving every caged dog a short walk and a chance to sniff about and enjoy the sunshine.  I walked 5 or 6 dogs, one after another, each for just ten minutes. It was a bitter sweet experience. Rewarding and distressing simultaneously, and it was all I could do not to bring several of them back home with me - especially a pair of enthusiastic puppies with no mum.....   I will try at least once more to see if the feeling of being helpful is stronger than the feeling of helplessness. There are CODA Facebook support groups - and I've joined them - for both donations to buy dried food and an active program of adoption, including sending them to the UK so I'll see how I can help there as well. 

A quiet afternoon including a nap as I had been up since 07.45 - unheard of for me! Before a lovely long evening with Jackie and Nick, neighbour friends, who arrived recently. We haven't seen each other for two and a half years, so there was much to catch up on.