11 October, Istanbul
Haci Mimi Apartment 53TL
There must be hundreds of thousands of stray
cats in Istanbul. Most of those we have encountered look clean and relatively
well fed. It appears that every cat adopts a human who feeds him or her; some
humans feed entire platoons of cats; many humans simply put cat food outside
their apartment or shop for whoever happens by. Each cat also seems to pick its
habitat carefully, considering, in addition to whether it is warm and dry and
safe, whether there is room to play and undoubtedly whether their choice
emphases their best physical characteristics. There are cemetery cats adorning
carved stone tombs and park cats decorating benches and pot-plant cats artistically
curled around a ficus. There are cats that make themselves at home on the seats
of parked scooters and others that prefer coiling up on a cooling vehicle
bonnet. There are cats at play in rooftop gutters and others that romp and
gambol on uneven paving or doze on carpets for sale in front of souvenir shops.
We saw one particularly attractive character posing in front of a street mural
and another napping in a trolley of books.
Cats of Istanbul
Cats of Istanbul
Cats of Istanbul
Cats of Istanbul
Cats of Istanbul