Living and volunteering with 35 dogs and 70+ cats in Southern Turkey!

If you've read some of my previous posts, you'll know that I love doing work exchange as I travel! In November last year, I was travelling through Turkey when I decided it was finally time to do a work exchange role to help animals!

Luckily, I found the perfect place on Workaway; a ranch in Southern Turkey that has 35 dogs and over 70 cats rescued from the streets or abusive homes! Little did I know that this place would actually become my home 💜

I initially asked to come and help for 2 weeks, since I planned to travel around Turkey afterwards and be in Germany a month later, however one plan was cancelled after the next so that I didn't need to leave the ranch yet!

Now, I've been living and doing my dream job for nearly 6 months, looking after these fur babies with my human family of Kamil and Itir (our Turkish parents and parents of the fur children), an amazing team of friends from around the world!!

The ranch is a sort of magical place where cats and dogs live side by side, and people from around the world all come together with a common goal: to make their lives the best possible. Every cat and dog has a name, their own personality, and a story, and unless they aren't happy living with many other dogs (rare), there is no rehoming here; they are part of the family and have a home here forever!

All the cats and dogs roam free around the ranch, and can come and go as they please, except for a few dogs that are kept apart as they don't get along with another dog or cat. Luckily, this number is very small for the number of dogs that we have! So every morning, after we've cleaned the house and fed the cats and dogs; it's play time for these guys!!

Living in such a rural area has also been a new experience for me, having grown up in a city! But seeing how bright the stars shine at night time, hearing crickets and frogs sing, and breathing in such fresh clean air has made it nothing but amazing to live out here!

The landscape is beautiful, with green fields, pine forests, and mountains in every direction, and the ranch is massive, giving us heaps of space for playing and running!

There's never a boring day, and living with this many dogs can often make it feel like a kindergarten of naughty children! But that doesn't mean there aren't quiet times for endless kitty and doggy cuddles!

But living at the ranch means sharing space, and sometimes even your bed!!

But how can I say no to these faces 😁😁

Coming to the ranch began as a workaway, but quickly I gained a home and a family (fur and human kinds 😁)! Doing whatever we can to help dogs and cats that need us, and make their lives better (they own the ranch, we're just lucky to stay here too 😝) has been an amazing experience, and I feel lucky to be a part of Kamil and Itir's incredible work here. Watching the changes in a dog or cat as they become more comfortable over time, and grow confident and happier is special and indescribable, and I can't recommend volunteering here enough 💜

Kamil and Itir are amazing, selfless (and crazy!!) people, to spend years and years of their lives giving everything to help those that can't always help themselves, and I'm proud to call them my Turkish parents 🇨🇳 They don't receive money from any people or charities to help with feeding costs and vet bills, so we've decided to start an online fundraising page to help them (and the fur babies) out; please see below if you want to, and any donation big or small will help them give their fur children the best life possible ^^

http://fnd.us/51MBKf?ref=sh_77IKYa

So if you love animals like I do, you won't "work" for a single minute here, and will be overwhelmed by all the love and cuddles you'll receive!

Let me know about your own experiences helping animals below, and feel free to ask any questions about the ranch! We always need animal lovers to come and help out 🐱🐶

We often have people contact us when they find puppies needing homes, so let me know if you or anyone you know could adopt a puppy from Antalya!

Thanks for reading! And as always, please upvote or follow if you enjoyed this 💜