Boji is a stray dog who became well known in 2021 after Istanbul residents noticed him using public transport on his own. He travelled by metro, tram and ferry, and monitoring by Metro Istanbul showed that he could cover around 30 kilometres in a single day.
The Dog Who Learned to Navigate Istanbul’s Public Transport
Boji caught the attention of Metro Istanbul staff after he began appearing regularly at stations and on public transport. He had no owner and moved freely around the city, particularly using the rail network.
His name comes from the word “bogie”, the term for the wheel assembly beneath a railway carriage. Boji often sat in the section of the carriage above the bogie during his journeys, and public transport staff began calling him by that name.
On 18 August 2021, teams from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality took Boji to a temporary animal care centre in Kemerburgaz. He was examined by veterinarians, vaccinated and microchipped. They found that he had already been neutered, and after the examination he was allowed to resume his usual journeys around the city.
Metro Istanbul also fitted him with a GPS tracker so that his routes could be monitored.
The tracking data confirmed that his journeys were not random. Boji used different lines, transferred between different forms of transport and travelled to distant parts of Istanbul. On one day alone, he passed through 29 stations and covered at least 30 kilometres.
A Familiar Sight on the Metro and Trams
Passengers began photographing him at stations, on platforms and inside carriages. Boji quickly became popular on social media, and the story of a dog travelling alone through a city of millions was also picked up by the international press.
Metro Istanbul built a communications project around his popularity. According to the company’s 2021 report, the Twitter account created for Boji had around 93,000 followers from several countries.
The metro was not the only form of transport Boji used. He was also seen on trams and other forms of public transport, and his journeys included ferries crossing the Bosphorus. Over time, regular passengers travelling on the same routes began to recognise him.
In November 2021, a photograph showing faeces on a tram seat circulated on social media, and Boji was blamed for the mess.
The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality investigated the incident. Boji was at an animal shelter that day and could not have been on the tram. CCTV footage later showed a man deliberately putting the faeces on the seat. The municipality announced that it would file a complaint against the man.
The incident also raised concerns about Boji’s safety. Murat Ongun, who was then a spokesperson for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, said that the authorities intended to find a safe place for the dog.
On 11 January 2022, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu announced that Boji had been adopted by businessman Ömer Koç. According to the mayor’s statement, Boji would live in a safe, protected space where he could move around and run freely.