The other day I got up before dawn because I wanted to take some shots of Istanbul as the sun came up. The set went alright, but the best picture has nothing to do with Istanbul by dawn… It’s this curious cat I came across (you can click the pic for a bigger version). I’ll be posting other pictures from the set regularly soon… The lower quality, unedited versions are already online for a sneak peek. Have a look in my Picasa.
Before I left I took another picture of the cat…
Istanbul has a lot of street cats, which I don’t mind. The dogs can be a nuisance, especially at night, but they are generally clean, healthy and well-behaved, unlike the ones in Sofia, Bulgaria. In my neighbourhood here in Istanbul, people put rests of food outside their window or put special food for cats on the pavement. Every now and then you’ll hear a cat outside your building meowing really loudly. One look out of the window and you’ll find out your upstairs neighbour is throwing food down at the cat – so be careful with sticking your head out of the window. 😉
In Holland, I have not once seen a street dog and I doubt I’ve ever seen a street cat, but it’s hard to tell as most people just let their cats outside during the day.
Do you have a lot of street animals in your country? I see a lot of reactions from different parts of the world, so I’m especially interested in what type of animals? How do they behave? How does the general public feel about them?
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Comments
12 responses to “A Curious Cat!”
That is a great shot! I especially like the first one, because he looks super alert though I wonder what compelled him to point one ear off at an angle for the second shot. Probably wondering what you were up to.
It always pays to be ready with your camera…I think the best pictures I have are ones I just stumbled across.
Can’t speak too much for Switzerland, but here in Chicago I can’t say I’ve noticed strays. In Malaysia, though… it’s pretty sad… people do not spay or neuter their pets, so there are a lot of unwanted cats and dogs that just get dumped to fend for themselves… and since dogs are considered “unclean”, there have been a lot of incidents where packs of stray dogs have been shot dead by the authorities …
In the villages in Bulgaria, you name it and its roaming the streets, dogs, cats, ducks, geese, goats, sheep, cows, donkeys etc. In towns just dogs and cats, the silver lining is that they keep the rat population down.
That cat picture is too cute!
we don’t have any stray dogs here in Germany, but a lot of cats – some of them may belong to people, they look rather well fed!
Nice photo of the kitty!
The kitty pic is too cute!
There are a LOT of ferel cats here in Florida. They’re everywhere! It’s illegal to feed them, but people do. One woman (or her friend) comes once a day to the park at the beach and feeds about ten of them.
I can’t say I’ve seen a lot of stray dogs though. Usually the dog catcher gets them and takes them to the pound (where they are usually put to sleep after a short amount of time)
What a beautiful kitty.
In my state there was a lot of cats, but some crazy people poisoned them 🙁
Same with dogs. The weird thing is that dogs actually go out of their houses sometimes and I can’t tell if a dog lives by itself or not. Sometimes you see a couple walking around the neighbourhood.
Once we were playing football at the park and a labrador retriever showed up, it had escaped from some house. We found out he liked catching ball and kept him busy until he asked for water 😉
That’s when we got hungry too, so we made bbq
jk.
That picture needs a caption! 🙂
No, no real stray animals in my area. Then again, I live out on the city fringes, where the only stray animals are possums, Kangaroos, and Blue Tongue Lizards.
Here in Valdese, North Carolina, people think nothing of letting dogs & cats run around the neighborhood. Some of the cats are feral I think, but all the dogs I’ve seen have homes, and for the most part are good natured.
cats are so moody i dont like them hehe,but surely they are cute as long as im away from them u dont wanna get scratched by those claws 🙂
Hello fellow cat lover,
I’m living in Sofia at the moment in a second floor apartment and I’ve been feeding a stay cat for the last couple of weeks, which has just produced 4 kittens. I have made them comfortable and warm but can’t look after them here for long… can you help me in anyway with information etc?
I love cats and have owned them in the UK so maybe I can help here with a donation or something else, but I don’t have the contacts in Sofia.
My mobile number is … 00359 896388551 ( my Bulgarian is not so good!)
Look forward to hearing from you
Best wishes
Keith Gregory