Field Trip to the hospital

This afternoon, Nicole turned up after her workout with some rather distressing symptoms.  So the second time she told me she couldn't see anything I called Cam.  He turned up at the house followed shortly by his colleague Ilhan.  By then, all of Nicole's symptoms had subsided, but we decided better safe than sorry and off we went to the "big" hospital in Kesan.

On the way I called our Insurance provider and played twenty questions.  I was very grateful I had the foresight to write down her symptoms in order of occurrence.  

Ilhan took us to the emergency department.  It was a narrow hallway with an admitting desk on one side and two curtained cubicles behind.  Ilhan explained the problem to a man behind the desk and we were ushered immediately into one of the cubicles (Cam, Ilhan, Nicole and I).  The same fellow followed us in and checked Nicole's blood pressure, then a doctor came.  I was excited because he greeted us in English, but his English was as limited as my Turkish.

The doctor ran a few more rudimentary tests, and spent a long time reassuring Ilhan that Nicole was fine and we could come back if there were more problems.  He made no notes, didn't ask her name and charged us nothing for the visit.

We aren't planning a second visit of course, but we were very relieved the way this visit worked out. To  quote Ilhan "Thanks be to God".

Puppies! and some of the other feral dogs in the neighbourhood.

There are two feral dog packs in our neighbourhood; one in our village and another one in the village which borders ours.  Like wild packs there are disagreements between the two groups and fights break out.  The dogs below all belong to our village's pack.  Currently there are at least 12 dogs in this pack plus the puppies.  The dogs are territorial and not too choosey about what they eat.  They can all climb and jump. (Of course the names are what we call them so we can tell them apart.)

This is JW. She came to the village in the fall of 2013.  She has a blue ear tag, which I am guessing means she is spayed.  She has claimed our yard as her own.  She climbs the fence from the neighbour's yard to get into ours.  When the weather was so cold two weeks ago she began sleeping on the deck.  I added a tarp for insulation and put the rug she'd claimed on top.  She is very territorial and barks at other dogs who come around.  If I walk in our own village she will go with me, but if I walk in the village next door she turns around at the bridge. Yes I've been feeding her regularly for the last month or so, but as more people return to the village that will come to an end.  My next door neighbour will not appreciate her.

This dog arrived in the village the same day as JW.  He also sports an ear tag.  This is the first time I've seen him in at least a month.  A lot of the dogs in both villages seem to have mange or some other skin condition.  He looked quite miserable yesterday.

From left to right Lloyd (big and not too bright Other dogs don't really seem to like him.), Gimpy (Alpha), Mutt and Jeff (siblings perhaps - always together and lately always with Gimpy). Many dogs have an injury to their back leg or hip as a result of fights, Gimpy is one of those.  Gimpy has been here since we first arrived in December 2011.  Gimpy, Mutt and Jeff have claimed a yard in our village and act quite aggressively when anyone comes near.

Nicole, Sam and I found these pups (2/3 pictured) a couple of days ago.  Their mom and dad were hanging around, but when Sam and I went back for pictures yesterday, their parents were no where to be seen. Their mom is a skeleton, but they seem well fed. Their dad is enormous - probably the biggest/heaviest dog in the village. At the place where we first saw the pups, we also saw 11 cats. ELEVEN!

Puppies

Puppy

Sausage has been in the village for about 18 months.