Istanbul Kittenage

The black cat that prowls in my neighborhood, and which features in the photograph on the right, just had kittens.

In Istanbul, people find creative solutions to the stray animals:

The dogs -- and there are a lot of them -- are sprayed and neutered, but there are so many cats that many of them are not fixed.

Therefore spring is kitten season.

The lovely black cat and her kittens now reside in a cardboard box on the sidewalk outside the electronic shops, fruit stands, and dürüm et lokantlar (meat sandwich restaurants) in my neighborhood.

I saw her, today, with her new kittens. She looked up at me with sweet, motherly eyes, while the wrinkled, wriggling, runt kittens milked away.

The cardboard box keeps the kittens from crawling and getting squashed on the road.

Like I said -- creative solution!

As an aside, fanatical animals lovers really should not be disturbed by the fact that there are so many, seemingly uncared for strays.

The fact is, the animals are an amazing feature in the city.

The dogs, considering their numbers, are well-fed by Istanbul residents, and friendly toward humans -- some of them are really fat (obese, in fact).

Of course, dog personalities change in different neighborhoods.

In rich parts of the city, like Bağdat Caddesı on the Asian side, the dogs act like house pets and are very healthy and happy. They are loyal companions to whomever sits on the benches to rest.

On the European side, and other less wealthy disticts, the dogs are more ragtag, wild and full of character. They exist in packs and run free in the streets.

These dogs avoid, but have no hostility toward people, and will often greet passers-by, from a distance, with a grim tail-wag.

Dog and cat chows are a prominent feature on the sidewalks, and are scattered in neighborhoods, and busy streets, including İstiklal.

The same applies to cats.

When I was living in Beşiktaş, another district in Istanbul, I was the subject of an attempted attack by a black-and-white cat that looked as though it was hissing to itself, and could not walk a straightline.


It was one of those tragicomic moments: people in the busy street who witnessed the cat's failed attempt, laughed, but then watched it sadly. I was just relieved it didn't manage to make contact with my bare legs.