Rottweilers in the Orchard

Sometimes you realize the hard way that you're not in Kansas when traveling, that it isn't your backyard.

Ben, Liz and I had twice visited our landlord's orchard with his permission. He is a Cambridge grad who teaches computer science in Istanbul. The orchard is off an ancient village road close to the old chapel, and is full of tangerine, orange, grapefruit, and lemon trees. Great fruit, great location, almost romantic.



It was so cool to fill up backpacks with fresh fruit for free, then climb the hill to our house and pork out on nourishing food. We bragged about it to the rest of the family when they arrived, and took them to the orchard as soon as we could.

There were a couple of loud rottweilers in the adjoining lot, safely behind a big fence.

Until they joined us in the orchard, eager for some action of the toothy kind.

Well, it wasn't quite this bad, but they were acting aggressive and looking for provo- cation, so I did my best to sound in control and sent our four youngest up separate trees, instructing everyone else to keep picking and not pay attention to the dogs at all.

The rottweilers tried to get a rise from us for 10 minutes, then started looking confused and milled around at the back of the orchard. We quietly got the children down from their perches and slowly walked out in a tight band, only to have the dogs gallop at us and try again to get a response. We ducked low branches, cowpies, and barbed wire, finally getting on the road back to the chapel.

Once is enough. The children will never see that orchard again. There are other great sights in the great nation of Turkey.