Cino

Hello. I am Cino. I am writing to you from beside Mathilda, my sister. Diken, Şanslı, Efe, Zorbik, Maskeli… they all send their love.

They miss Beytepe terribly: saying good morning to you, waiting for feeding time, sleeping on the grass, the library steps. That is where they always hung about; you were more likely to find me over towards Parlar. I used to spend my time with the Athena lot, then I moved to other parts of the campus. After they left… so much changed at Beytepe lately that we stopped seeing each other at all.

I got a little old in all that. My joints started hurting and walking slowly became hard. I did not even want to get up for my food. Medicines, supplements, Haydok feeding me by hand — none of it moved me away from the end I was coming up to fast. My body was tired.

To my brother Eren, who looked after me and cared for me in my last days, and to Haydok: thank you, for wrapping me in cotton wool and for loving me so very much as their "little duckling". For being my family for ten years, since I was a baby.

And there is Deniz. I know I was very special to her. She was to me too; she used to put flowers on my head and take my picture. She would stay beside me for hours and pet me, and we would talk. She would say Cino and nothing else.

They tell me I helped her get over her fear of dogs, that I was the reason. How glad I am, because through that my other friends got to meet somebody as wonderful as her. She touched all of their hearts, and so did Haydok.

We were born here, we grew up here, we breathed here; the woods were ours, and this is where we waited, tails going, to see you. I say "here" because we are still here.

I know you remember us, that even when we are not with you, you say "Cino and I sat over there", "Patik and I used to say hello here", "Beyaz came up to me for the first time just there".

We all go, one by one, when our time comes. But you have more to do with the ones who are left, and they need you very much. Love them. Love them a great deal.