The Land of Cats (and Dogs)

Another beautiful sunset

Our first week back on the boat was spent just trying to locate items.  Captain Andrea had re-arranged items for his trip so we were hunting and pecking till we located the previously re-located items.  Every day we would get up and walk to the marina which was fine as it was all downhill.  But in the afternoon we would have backpacks full of groceries and now had to climb uphill!  After that first week, our neighbor, who had been watching over Talaria for us, loaned us their scooter since they had just bought a new one.  Michael was one happy camper!

The scooter

As you can imagine, sixteen months of neglect left us with a maintenance/repair list that is quite long.  Item number one on the list is to put fresh anti-fouling paint on the bottom.  Boats bottoms are painted with special paint that keeps the growth of barnacles at bay - at least for a season or two.  The bottom first had to be sanded and cleaned.  Then one coat of primer was applied followed by two coats of anti-fouling paint.  The whole process took a little over a week.  This is now week four and the painting is completed.  Hoorah!  Talaria is scheduled to go back in the water on Friday - February 12th!

Putting the primer coat on

Needless to say we have been working on the boat so much that we really have not seen much of Kaş - we go from the apartment to the marina and back.  But we did notice that there is a very large population of cats here!  Kaş' approach to "pets" is unusual.  No-one owns the cats, they are communal pets.  Most everyone feeds them and leaves them water.  And some folks go so far as to build them little cat houses. They wander in and out of buildings and no-one seems to care. They will wander into your apartment too if you aren't watching!  Apparently, the prophet Muhammad liked cats, so the people of Kaş also like cats.  There are dogs also but they are significantly outnumbered by the cats.

New bottom paint

We are told that there is a fund that takes care of the animals needs.  People in the community monitor the cats (and dogs) and if one seems ill they scoop it up and take them to the vet.  The vet then treats the animal and gets paid via the "community fund".  The animals are routinely taken in and neutered or spayed.  The vet then clips off a corner of the cats ear to mark it as having been "fixed"- I am not sure how they mark the dogs.  Dogs just lounge around all over town as well and no-one cares so long as they are passive.  But one aggressive move gets them removed.  They have no tolerance for aggressive animals - no second chances.  The dogs seem to know the rule as they are the most passive dogs I have ever seen😊

Just a few of the many, many cats

 They have even tied their recycling program to the animals (or at least the dogs).  There is a clever little recycling bin that will release dog food when you put in items for recycling.  So the dogs get fed the more you recycle!  Now how clever is that!!  I haven't tried it yet but a friend and I are saving up our recycling so we can go check it out.  I will be sure to report back.

Kaş

Tomorrow we have a road trip planned to some nearby towns as we are on the hunt for a new starter battery.  Our batteries were another casualty of our sixteen month absence.  We have already purchased new batteries for the house bank but we need to replace the starter battery as well.  The paint and batteries are the small projects... much bigger ones are on the horizon.  Stay tuned!