Next time you are travelling in Istanbul, you might across a four legged friend named Boji who is quite the celebrity, and very well known for travelling across the city using the ferries, trams and subway cars. He’s extremely resourceful and probably travels up to 30km per day taking in plenty of metro stations and at least two ferry rides.
Neutered and vaccinated by the municipalities authorities he’s free to roam where he pleases and just wants to be near people, as many as he can find throughout the day in various parts of the city, and the noises of the public transport certainly doesn’t affect him as he goes throughout his journey’s.
For many he’s become a part of daily life and is protected from ‘shoos’ by those who know him from any passers by that don’t know his role within the city. Boji has also been well looked after, he’s been groomed and had a medical check-up, including visiting a training camp and going through a behavioural study to ensure that he’s content with human interaction.
He’s become that famous that officials have not only fitted a tracker to his collar but Boji also now has his own Twitter and Instagram accounts with tens of thousands of followers. There’s also a little kennel for him at one of the metro stations in case he wants to rest, and given that there’s quite a few strays throughout the city, there’s no shortage of ‘free’ food and water for Boji when he needs it.
Chris McGrath who is a local photographer and who has been living in Instanbul for about six years now, recently spent a day with Boji tracking him through the city… and he recalls that ‘if there’s one thing Boji doesn’t like it’s cats but apart from that he’s totally a perfect dog. Just wonders around. Everybody pats him, he’s super happy!’
McGrath also said that the local officials will be putting up posters shortly to inform people about Boji and his movements but don’t expect him to come with you he said… ‘He doesn’t listen to anybody, he goes where he wants to go and he’s quite content doing it’.
You can read more about the adventures of Boji and see plenty of photographs by Chris McGrath here:
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2021/10/travel/dog-istanbul-boji-cnnphotos/
