A Little Bit of Turkish Delight
The sweetest dog in all of Turkey is the perfect tour guide.
By Jane Thomas
‘HE LOVES STONES,’ I’D BEEN TOLD. ‘OPUS WILL DO ANYTHING FOR A STONE.’
‘He loves stones,’ I’d been told. ‘Opus will do anything for a stone.’ And so, on that first morning’s walk in the forest, I dutifully picked up a small, neatly rounded pebble, caught Opus’s attention, and lobbed it down the track. He shot off in pursuit but then stopped, hurled himself down a steep slope, and proceeded to paw at the ground.
‘Bang a couple of stones together and he’ll always come back,’ I’d been told.
Two small stones bashed one on the other made enough noise to catch Opus’ attention for a moment, but he soon went back to his pawing. Unwilling to risk sliding down a seemingly endless slope, I stood and waited until he deigned to return to my side–which he did, in due course, with a rock the size of his head weighing heavily in his jaws.
‘Oh,’ I said. ‘That sort of stone.’
This tendency to carry around decent-sized boulders explained why Opus wasn’t so keen on his hard, crunchy kibble. A good soaking in water and a large blob of yogurt on top solved that problem. I’ve been housesitting for nearly ten years now and have looked after well over a hundred dogs in that time, so I’ve acquired a fair number of tricks to deal with most scenarios.
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