Since she had been residing on the streets for several weeks, the golden retriever was ravenous. She held a little piece of bread in her lips until she found a secure location to eat since it was the only meal she could locate.
The golden retriever was photographed in March by dog enthusiast Ayberk Ayar while he was traveling in Turkey’s Central Anatolia area. When Ayar inquired about the dog with several neighbors, they said that she had been abandoned recently and had been stumbling around the neighborhood for approximately two weeks.
More than 6,000 miles away, Tracy Behnke, the intake director for Rescuers Without Borders, an organization that rescues and relocates dogs from Turkey, saw the photo on Ayar’s Instagram page.
“We knew that she would end up starving or getting hurt really bad,” Behnke told The Dodo. “Golden retrievers just can’t fight as well as the other bigger dogs. I was just taken with her, and I thought, ‘We need to do something for her.’”
The Rescuers Without Borders team asked a few volunteers to find the golden retriever and pull her from the streets. But when they arrived at the village where she was last spotted, the dog had disappeared.
“They went around looking for her, and people were saying that there was a man who had a golden and was driving around, trying to sell her,” Behnke said
The volunteers thought the worst when they heard this; they believed the man was attempting to sell her so he could use her as a breeding animal. Behnke speculated that he drove about with her and asked others if they were interested in purchasing her for breeding before taking her home.
The volunteers kept looking, and their perseverance paid off in the end. They found her in a somewhat dilapidated shack with the aid of other people, Behnke said. She had no food or drink, it was dark, and there were no windows.
“They said she was so sweet,” Behnke said. “She was giving kisses, which is kind of unusual for a Turkish dog. I think she definitely knew she was going to safety again.”
While the Rescuers Without Borders team planned how to get Harper to the United States, Harper was placed in foster care in Turkey. Behnke remarked, “It occurred extremely fast.” Harper was immediately put on a trip to San Francisco after receiving her medical clearance and necessary paperwork.
This past weekend, Behnke and her husband traveled from their home in Salem, Oregon, to meet Harper at the airport, and they both immediately fell in love with her.
“She’s a sweetheart,” Behnke said. “Everyone who has met her so far is in awe of how sweet a dog can be coming from that situation.”
But it was clear that Harper had been living on the streets — she’s very timid, Behnke explained, and hesitant to accept food.
“We offer her food, and she almost looks like she’s not sure if she can,” Behnke said. “My husband actually ended up hand-feeding her to get her to eat. It was just like she was thinking, ‘I don’t want to get in trouble.’”
While Harper is fatigued, she also makes an effort to stay awake, which is presumably something she had to do when she was living on the streets. She would eventually fall down while kind of sleeping or dozing, according to Behnke. She would take a snooze for around 15 minutes before getting up and continuing to watch.
Harper is now with a foster family in Washington state, and she’s slowly adjusting to her new life. She’s especially fond of playing outside in the grass, according to Behnke.
While Harper is fatigued, she also makes an effort to stay awake, which is presumably something she had to do when she was living on the streets. She would eventually fall down while kind of sleeping or dozing, according to Behnke. She would take a snooze for around 15 minutes before getting up and continuing to watch.
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