Survivor of Turkey’s devastating quake, Bufy the dog finds a new family
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Bufy was found locked in a bakery days after the devastating earthquake.
PHOTO: REUTERS
HATAY – Bufy, a golden retriever found trapped in the ruins of a bakery after Turkey’s devastating earthquake, is settling into life with a new family and recovering from his ordeal of a year ago.
His new owner, Ms Pinar Tamgucuk, said that although she has never really been fond of animals, she wanted to adopt the dog as soon as she saw his paw reaching out from the rubble in her home town of Hatay in southern Turkey.
“They had shut the dog inside the bakery. Right away, when he reached out his paw to me, I wanted to take him at that moment,” Ms Tamgucuk said.
“He cried a lot at night. He could not sleep. He was scared, frightened of everything. When there were small tremors, he would come next to us and let us know. He was very scared.”
The quake that struck in the early hours of Feb 6, 2023, levelled towns and parts of some cities in Turkey’s south-east, killing more than 53,000 people in the country and nearly 6,000 in neighbouring Syria.
At the Patiron grooming salon in Hatay, those working with traumatised pets said they had seen some of them become more aggressive or withdrawn since the earthquake.
“After a year, he got used to us. He doesn’t try to bite us now,” said Bufy’s groomer, Ms Dilan Arslan. “But not everyone can be as lucky as Bufy.” REUTERS
