Traveler street dog who was gifted free access to public transport has now been adopted

Each year, millions of tourists visit Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey. The city has majestic palaces, ornate timber mansions, parks, ferry rides, and ceramic art. Apart from all these, visitors might also notice a unique sight while commuting through the city. It’s a face familiar to most people traveling around the city regularly. The face belongs to a commuter street dog named Boji.

Boji, once a street dog, is now an avid and devoted commuter who travels around the city in ferries, buses, metro trains, trams, and subway cars. His name “Boji” is the Turkish translation of bogie. Bogie is the subway train area he enjoys frequenting. The wandering pooch is characterized as an "Anatolian shepherd mix," with golden-brown fur, dark eyes, and floppy ears. Over all these years, Boji has gained an almost celebrity status among people on social media.

In 2021, municipal officials were amazed to learn about this dog’s travels. They arranged for his vaccination and fitted a microchip on his body to track his movements. The trackers reported that Boji traveled an estimated 30 kilometers a day, passing through dozens of metro stations and taking at least two ferry rides. “He knows where to go. He knows where to get out,” said Aylin Erol, the head of customer relations at Metro Istanbul, per CNN.

Later that year, Chris McGrath, a Getty Images photographer, spent a day with Boji and documented his adventures in a series of photographs. In his interview with CNN, McGrath described the canine as a " free spirit. All he wants to do is ride on transportation. Every time he goes past a bus or van, or any form of transport, he just wants to get on it. It’s quite bizarre.”

McGrath recalled that Boji is well aware of what he needs to do and where he needs to go while traveling on trains or ferries. He also said that Boji likes the vibrations of the vehicles’ engines, so he usually sits where the wheels are underneath. The pup doesn’t like cats, though.

Although nowadays, Boji has a Wikipedia page dedicated to his information, McGrath first learned about him via Twitter, “Everybody knows him now. Everybody sees him,” he said. McGrath described that municipal officials also took Boji for grooming and behavioral therapy sessions, gave him some TLC, and created a kennel at one of the metro stations.

McGrath also said that the municipality will soon be putting posters of Boji on the transit system, guiding people on how to interact with him. “He doesn’t listen to anybody. Like if you do try to tell him something, he just ignores you. Lots of people say, ‘Come over here, sit here,’ and he just ignores it. He goes where he wants to go. He’s that sort of spirit. He just wants to go and do his own thing, and travel around, and he’s quite content doing it.”

In 2022, according to the Daily Sabah, Boji was adopted by Mehmet Ömer Koç, a billionaire, Turkish businessman, art collector, and chairman of Koç Holding. At this time, the commuter dog was spending his days at a shelter operated by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) to stay warm in the cold weather. That’s when the city’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu announced his new home on Twitter and thanked Koç, "Boji, Istanbul's world-famous dog, now has a home where he can roam, run freely. He will be away from people who wanted to hurt him," he tweeted.

According to Hurriyet News, in 2022, Istanbul’s celebrity pooch also inspired a cryptocurrency project aimed at helping stray animals. A portion of the transaction fees obtained from the cryptocurrency released under the name “Boji Token” is donated to shelters as dog food.

Wanderlust can take one to places, and in the case of Boji, he is already on his way to traverse the globe. According to his Wikipedia page, Boji was last spotted in London with his owner on a London bus. Well, he is the dog who likes to wander and wouldn’t stop!

Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 7, 2024. It has since been updated.