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?
BasBasBas.com is about my life as a Dutch student living in Istanbul. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul and travels in the region. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.
