Days 19&20: Did they eat the dog? 👀

Well. Where to start? 🤔

Ben and I left Khot feeling nervous for what may lie ahead. Would we find Shya in Bardzravan? Would he be hurt? Had he been killed? Maybe he’s trying to find his way back to Tatev through the forest right this moment? So many possibilities, and not finding Shya was a very real one. The idea of this had actually given Ben nightmares throughout the night - he kept dreaming that we couldn’t find him 😰 eek!

As we said, we’d organised to hire a car specifically so we could go and get Shya. This is because Bardzravan is so remote, high up, and difficult to reach by foot. We also confidently assumed no taxi would want a big dirty malting stray dog in their vehicle 🤪 We’d arranged to hire a big 4WD - we’d seen what the road looked like leaving Bardzravan, and it ain’t pretty! 😅 However, we first had to make our way to Goris (pronounced goh-reece). So after yet another wild taxi ride 🤪, we picked up the 4WD and made like a tourist driving in a foreign country (i.e., very slowly) for Bardzravan 🫡

The drive seemed to go on forever. When we finally arrived at Anahit’s road, we parked up and began walking down. When Anahit saw us she came running out like “hey! What are you doing here?!” and so began our explanation of how we’d come to pick up Shya and take him back to Tatev. Of course, Anahit was completely bewildered - why would anyone care so much for a stray dog? The way Ben put it was that it probably seemed to Anahit like it would seem to us if an Armenian tourist came to NZ, saw a possum, and then decided they wanted to save that one particular possum 😅😅😅 This is probably a fairly accurate comparison, as Armenians do seem to view dogs as pests to be rid of 💔🥺

This conversation with Anahit turned out to be hilarious! Google translate seems to struggle when attempting to translate someone’s spoken word, and so when it translated what Anahit was trying to say to us, it was coming out with things like “the dog is my eternal companion”, “the chickens ate what they ate”, and “I enjoyed my meal” and so on. This was paired with Anahit making gestures like shrugging her shoulders, lifting her hands like 🤷🏼‍♀️, and her facial expression was one that said “oh well”. So, feeling increasingly worried and gearing up to feel horrified, I tentatively asked “…are you saying you ate the dog?” 👀 to which Anahit (and her family behind her) burst out laughing - this gave us our answer, which then made us burst out laughing! Of course they hadn’t eaten the dog!!! 🤣🤣🤣 What was eventually communicated was that Shya had “eaten two of her chickens”, that “he comes in the night”, and that “he is a thief dog”! 🐕😳

Of course, Ben and I immediately felt sorry and responsible for Shya causing such mayhem for our lovely host! It’s our fault he followed us to Bardzravan in the first place. We declared that we would find Shya and take him away so that he doesn’t eat more of her chickens! Anahit said “good luck, you won’t find him. He is afraid to come here!” This didn’t dissuade us, however, and Anahit’s family actually offered to help us look for him. On the way, Anahit showed us the pile of feathers that used to be one of her chickens 😰 Oh dear! Our desperation to find Shya increased significantly - if he kept eating the village chickens, he’d soon be dealt with (if he hadn’t been already). Why wouldn’t someone just feed him? ☹️💔

It was clear that Anahit’s family thought looking for Shya was a waste of time, but it was lovely of them to try and help anyway. They said to search to the right of Anahit’s road, as that’s where they thought he’d most likely be if he was still in the village. I’d have preferred to start by looking down Anahit’s road, as I had a weird feeling that that was the most likely place Shya would be, but who was I to argue with those who knew the town best? So to the right we went 🫡

After a pleasant 10 minute meander around the village, we hadn’t found Shya. Anahit’s family wished us good luck and said they looked forward to seeing us again later. After that, Ben and I decided we’d look down Anahit’s road and then retrace our footsteps and go and check the track we’d taken up to Bardzravan. This meant trekking down to the bottom of the cliff that Bardzravan sits upon. The idea of this did not enthuse me at all 😒 I felt it was highly unlikely he’d be in that particular forest, but, it was important that we exhausted every avenue in our search. This was looking to be another big afternoon!

Incredibly, as we walked further down Anahit’s road, I spied a bit of blonde fluff tucked in the corner of someone’s garden fence behind a tree. My heart skipped and I poked my head around the far end of the fence. A wolfish face looked back at me - a wolf face that had one straight and one floppy ear on top of it! I called to Ben in delight “OMG IT’S HIM! IT’S SHYA!!!!!”. I was caught between panic and excitement in equal measures - Shya was wagging his tail a lot but wasn’t getting up. Was he hurt? Had someone maybe hit his leg? Had he been bitten by another dog? He seemed unwilling to move. Ben and I both felt extremely nervous about the fact that he was in someone else’s garden. Did the people who lived there now see him as their dog? Would someone perceive us to be stealing him? I cared enough to feel nervous and shaky with my heart pounding, but there was absolutely no way we were leaving him. Not a chance! Not with people who hold such gross attitudes towards dogs. Ben approached the fence and called down to Shya. On seeing Ben (Shya’s newest and possibly greatest love & obsession 😝), he awkwardly got to his feet, started crying, and jumped up with his front paws on the fence. Shya then trotted down to me and exited the garden. Thank God!

Our reunion was epic. Everyone was crying and howling and licking and kissing faces! We spent a while cuddling Shya before getting him some food and water - he was a very hungry and VERY thirsty boy! During this time we had a few curious onlookers - locals who’d come out to see what all the fuss was about. We imagine they were probably thinking “wtf are these crazy tourists doing” 😅😅😅

Then came the next challenge - getting Shya into the car. We had no idea how this would go, but we thought that if he was hungry he would probably follow food anywhere! So we held food in front of him and moved it further into the car each time he moved forward to take it. Because of this, he eventually had to put his front paws up on the seat, meaning I could then lift his back legs, shove him into the car, and close the door. Whew! Wiped a bit of sweat off of my forehead after that 😮‍💨

Relief washed over both Ben and I. We’d actually done it - we’d found Shya AND got him into the car! Now we could at least get him back to Tatev where he’d surely be safer and happier! HOORAAYYY!!!! 🥳🥳🥳 Ben sat in the backseat with Shya, and, after eating a bit more food, Shya pretty much immediately fell asleep with his head on Ben’s lap. Poor boy probably hadn’t been able to rest for fear of being hurt in some way - not to mention how hungry and thirsty he must have been 🥺

It was late afternoon by the time we got back to Tatev. We parked up at the monastery, which is where we’d originally met Shya. Upon getting out of the car, it was obvious Shya felt more comfortable and at ease. He was home! We made our way through the park and around to a quiet area where there was a bench we could sit on. On our way over, we walked past a group of people and one of the men randomly kicked out at Shya 😳 I didn’t see this myself, Ben told me about it later. Had I seen this happen, I would’ve turned around, made eye contact, and given that man my best death stare straight into his soul ☠️😡 It’s enraging that some humans think of themselves as better than and/or more important than animals - this time to the extent that they felt justified in randomly kicking a dog! 🤬 What is wrong with people????????? 🤬

Anyway. Even before we’d found Shya in Bardzravan, Ben and I had been messaging and emailing various people and dog shelters, asking if they could look after Shya until he was ready to immigrate, or if they knew anyone who could help with this process. We quickly realised that the only place in Armenia that has any of these resources is Yerevan, the capitol, so if we found a place for him we’d have to drive him all the way to Yerevan. Together Ben and I probably reached out to 10-12 different people/organisations. Eventually, one person - Zhanna - got back to us. Zhanna runs a little dog shelter with her mum in Yerevan. Unfortunately they didn’t have any space for Shya, but they gave us the WhatsApp numbers of two vets that we could contact. Zhanna said they could assist with both the shelter and immigration stuff. I immediately messaged both of them, and Zhanna also messaged them about Shya, so I was hopeful we’d actually get somewhere. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear back from either of them (and still haven’t!). We heard back from one shelter, but they didn’t seem very keen to assist or give advice or anything. We continued reaching out to people and shelters throughout our time in Tatev, but Zhanna ended up being the only one who got back to us and was willing to try to help. By the time we got to the end of Sunday, we were feeling pretty defeated. We couldn’t check Shya into a dog hotel because he needed to be microchipped and vaccinated. The trouble was, seeing as Yerevan was the only place Shya could receive vet care, we needed a place for him to stay so that he could be microchipped and vaccinated! 🤪 Sigh!

In a last ditch desperate attempt, I messaged Zhanna again saying nobody was getting back to us and we were probably going to have to leave Shya in Tatev. Zhanna responded saying she’ll try to find a foster family and will also look to see if she could find somewhere he could stay. Less than 10 minutes later, Zhanna came back with the contact of a dog hotel that had been recommended by one of her friends, and said that the person who runs this place is a vet so they’re probably able to help in our situation! Again, I immediately messaged this dog place - and immediately heard back! What?! I was s h o c k e d 😅🤪 Long story short, Gayane agreed to a trial - Shya could come and meet the other dogs there at 7pm tomorrow (Monday), but if he was aggressive he’d have to leave. Ben and I looked at each other - would Shya be aggressive? We didn’t think so, but the possibility was there… After all, he’d only ever known life on the street where other dogs are seen as competition. How would he respond to new unknown dogs? 🤷🏼‍♀️ We’d seen him be both dominant and submissive, we’d seen him be protective of his dog-friends (one of his friends was attacked by two rival dogs and Shya, without hesitation, ran over to drive the much larger dogs away). We’d also seen him hold his own when he himself was attacked by another dog 😰 It was definitely a risk, driving Shya 5+ hours up to Yerevan with the possibility of having to turn right back around again… 🥴 However, we decided it was a risk we were willing to take.

Interestingly, throughout our weekend in Tatev, Shya followed us everywhere - including through other dogs’ territories - at all times of the day. This was incredibly stressful, both for us and for Shya (this is how he ended up being attacked by another dog, and how his friend got attacked). But Shya insisted on escorting us around even though he was scared - we think he was more scared of losing us (and by us I mean Ben lol). Both nights he tried to sleep in wait for us on the porch outside the hostel, and both nights he got shooed away by the hostel owners. Each morning he came to find us at the hostel, and each morning he successfully found us and escorted us back to the monastery (he did this by grabbing hold of Ben’s jacket with his mouth and pulling him along 🤣). As gorgeous as this was, we wished we could communicate that we’d come find him ourselves, and that he didn’t have to put himself in danger - we weren’t leaving without him! We wished we had a way to let him know that his days and nights on the street were soon to be at an end - that soon he’d never have to wonder when his next meal was going to be, etc 🥹

And so begins our journey to Yerevan with our gorgeous Shya-boy in the backseat 🥰😅🤪🥳🤗🥹

To be continued…Read more