This past March, while exploring the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, Aybrek Ayar came across a heartbreaking scene. A sweet, skinny golden retriever was wandering the streets with a piece of bread in her mouth. When a concerned Aybrek asked locals about the dog, he learned it had recently been dumped by its owner and had been wandering for the past 2 weeks.
The dog was scared and hungry but had managed to find a piece of bread. Now, it carried the bread around its mouth, searching for a safe place to eat it.
Heartbroken by the dog’s situation, Aybrek took a photo. He then posted it on Instagram, recounting the dog’s story.
Through the magic of social media, Tracey Behnke came across Aybrek’s post.
Tracey is the intake director for Rescuers Without Borders, an organization that rescues and relocates dogs from Turkey. When she saw the golden retriever in Aybrek’s photo, she knew she had to help. In an interview with The Dodo, she said:
“We knew that she would end up starving or getting hurt really bad. 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.'”
Tracey dispatched volunteers to Central Anatolia to find the golden retriever, but when they arrived on the scene, the dog was gone.
With the help of locals, they discovered a man had been driving around, trying to sell a golden retriever. Luckily, they didn’t stop searching; they finally found the dog locked up in a run-down shed without any food or water.
In this heartwarming video, you see the moment the dog is rescued, as a volunteer walks out of the shed, cradling the sweet retriever in her arms.
“You’re safe, you’re safe now,” the woman says in Turkish.
“No bad man.”
Rescuers named the dog Harper.
Once she had been rescued, she was sent to a vet for a health check. Then finally, after everything she’d been through, she was put on a plane to San Francisco— finally en route to her brand-new life.
Tracey and her husband drove out from Salem, Oregon, to meet her, and, there, they immediately fell in love.
“She’s a sweetheart,” Tracey said.
“Everyone who has met her so far is in awe of how sweet a dog can be coming from that situation.”
Sadly, though, Harper wasn’t totally immune to her life on the streets. She is extremely hesitant to eat food offered to her and doesn’t like falling asleep for long— but she’s adjusting to her foster family in Washington and loves playing in the grass.
“She came out of her shell and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is great!’ She was playing and running like it was the most amazing thing.”
Harper still has a few weeks left with her foster family but is currently looking for a loving furever family! If you’re interested in adopting her, you can contact Rescuers Without Borders here.
Tracey said, “She’s an absolute doll, and we want to find her the best home.”
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