A 48-year-old Turkish woman resigned from her teaching position six years ago to set up a dog shelter after she saw two disabled stray dogs in need of help in her neighborhood and is currently taking care of 400 stray dogs in Turkey's western Tekirdağ province.
Married and a mother of one, Reyhan Karagözler quit her job as an English teacher and attended university for a second time to become a veterinarian.
After receiving training, she opened a shelter with the support of her family, but that shelter became insufficient in size for the numerous dogs she looked after.
Karagözler opened a larger shelter with the support of animal lovers and named it Melek Barınağı (Angel Shelter). People who discovered her through social media started sending dogs in need of care to her shelter from all around Turkey.
"They are all my children," she says, referring to the 400 dogs, around half of which are paralyzed or disabled.
Karagözler says that most of the dogs she takes care of are unable to live on the streets and that she resembles them to babies.
She feeds the dogs, gives them water to drink and treats them with the training she received.
Her hope is to get more support to put the shelter in order and get proper financing, in addition to the support she receives from animal lovers.
"The monthly upkeep is around 9,000 Turkish liras ($2,500), and I pay for most of it from my own pocket," she says. The dogs consume around 200 kilograms of food every day.
Karagözler runs the shelter on her own and does not have any employees.
"In the past, some volunteers were coming to help, but now there is no one besides me," she says, describing that she's having a hard time looking after all the dogs in the shelter, covering about a 4.5 square kilometer area.
