Just three days ago I drove my wife and my 6 month old
daughter to my mothers house to Izmit (some 90 kms away
from Istanbul) so that my wife could help my mother pack up
her private belongings before the movers came in to take
away the furniture from her apartment, which she placed for
sale in order to buy another apartment in Istanbul so she
can be closer to her grandchildren (my nephew and my
daughter who are born only a year apart) .
We had a good time together and since the next day (Monday)
I was supposed to work I kissed my baby daughter, wife and
Mom goodbye and hit the TEM (Trans European Motorway) to
drive back to Istanbul. Now I have a pretty good car and
the motorway is a freeway and at that time of the night it
was quite empty. So I decided to just push the accelerator
a bit further. So I was speeding at some 190 - 200 km's an
hour. I was just entering a bridge (viaduct as we call it
here in Turkey) so I eased the accelerator against any
sudden gusts and keeping in mind that it started o drizzle
and the road was getting wet. (After all I want to parent
my baby longer and she needs me to grow up healthily).
As my car slowed down to some 120-130 kmh, (BTW, my
headlights were on high beams as there were no other cars
to disturb and that area of the freeway does not have any
light posts and is pitch dark) and I was halfway across the bridge,
at the far end of the bridge this animal (or whatever) of
some sort leapt into the freeway just from behind the
barrier. It bounded accross the freeway. The fashion in
which it was running was peculiar: it was arching its back
as its head was still held low and between its shoulders.
It had a shiny grey-silverish color. It had no tail. I hit
the brakes in order to give it more time to get accross,
since it was far bigger than I would probably dare hitting.
Just as it got across the 4 lanes and reached the mid
barriers, it stopped and rose on its hind feet. It stood
just as a kangaroo would stand and looked around (well we do
not have them in Turkey but we do have "Animal Planet"
and "Discovery Channel" you know...). It stared at my
headlights as though it was mesmerised for a few seconds.
It's forelegs were long enough to touch it's knees. It's
eyes reflected my headlights just as any cat's or dog's
eyes would, in green. By then I had come as close as some
30 metres to it when I realised it had such a back as
though it's vertebrae (spine) was exposed. It had this
slight hunch while standing up and I would estimate that it
was some 1.65 m. tall when it was erected like that. I was
as close as 20 m. when it leapt accross the middle barrier
and bounded accross the other side of the freeway which
headed east. I had slowed down to a 50 kmh or so when I saw
that a semi (18 wheeler) truck saw it too under it's own
headlights. I know very well because I heard the blare of
it's air horn in order to scare the animal (or creature ??)
away as quickly as possible.
Now, the area surrounding the freeway is host to a huge
industrial complex and several factories as well as the
main storage of a major hypermarkets chain of Turkey. The
main storage of that hypermarket chain alone sould have
some 200 people working in it I assume and at that time of
the night, there should be at least some 2,000 people
working night shift around the area. So I doubt that animal
would roam freely amongst the area under all that risk to
be observed by thousands. I guess it was nocturnal since it
had quite large eyes. It did not have any fur or hair as
far as I could see. It was not any of the sort of fauna I
know of at the least.
Turkey as many of you are well aware
is a subtropic area and the average temperature during this
season is some 2 to 4 degrees C in the nights. I doubt it
was an exotic animal imported or whatsoever at large. (Well
not at that area at least.) I told of the animal to my
firends and everyone claimed it was a large dog. A large
dog standing on it's hind legs and begging for food from a
car bearing down on it at some 100 kmh ? That is one brave
dog ! All others I had ever seem just stuck their tails
between their legs and fled.
Whatever it was, I was spooked a bit after seeing it and am
still trying to find out what it was. Until now the Internet
offered no clue. If anyone has an idea, please post it.
Thank you.
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