by Jeff Bogle
BBC
In Istanbul, a delicate balance is struck daily in its winding streets, metro stations and cafés.
More than 15 million people compete for space in Turkey’s largest city, which straddles Europe and Asia on either side of the Bosphorus, much like a house cat perched half on the sofa, half on the coffee table.
That’s the appropriate visual, because there are an estimated quarter of a million stray kitties living here, too. Cats are woven into the very fabric and history of the city, as ubiquitous as the rugs for sale on every corner.
This is a city shared; a city that purrs incessantly with love and life.
“Istanbul cats are, on the whole, neither pets nor strays, but a hybrid of those terms,” said Marcel Heijnen, photographer and author of City Cats of Istanbul, adding that the cats are not owned by specific people “but taken care of by the community in their respective neighborhoods.”
He notes a local reverence for cats that he has not witnessed elsewhere. “Each municipality has a veterinary department that helps street animals in their district, with free neutering service for street cats,” explains Fatih Dağlı, co-founder of Cat Museum Istanbul. “Private animal clinics also offer discounted services for street cats, and residents often chip in to pay the vet bills.”
This devotion to cats is hardly new. “The adoration of stray cats dates back to when Istanbul was under Ottoman rule,” Heijnen said. During this period, local foundations made sure that stray animals were taken care of.
That love for strays turned into a full-time profession when a job called mancacı (“cat sitter”) was created. “Mancacıs were tasked with the job of making sure the city’s cats were fed, with the residents also having the option of buying food from mancacıs and feeding the kitties themselves.”
Dağlı traces the relationship back even further. “Since the Phoenicians, it was very common for sea traders to keep cats on board to guard against rodents,” she said, adding that as silk and spice merchant ships arrived in busy Istanbul ports during the Roman and Ottoman eras, so did countless felines.
Today, the human residents of Istanbul still happily share their spaces, inside and out, above ground and below, with their city of cats. So much so that the nickname, “Catstanbul” is widely used by feline fanciers around the world – and many tourists make the trek here because of the cats.”
During my own visits, I’ve come to appreciate how, in such a loud, hectic metropolis, the street cats of Istanbul prove themselves to be its quietest citizens. Whether sharing a wooden bench as I sit to catch my breath after walking uphill to see the Galata Tower or sidling up on a seawall as I admire the 360-degree view of the city from the water, Istanbul’s kitties have provided me with a much needed a sense of calm in a place that can sometimes feel chaotic.
And I’ve seen countless cats offer this same kind of care to others who willingly pause and pat their welcoming lap, a friendly invitation that knows no border or language barrier. Everyone, even cats surviving on the street, deserves such kindness.
As Heijnen can attest, when an Istanbul cat chooses your lap for a nap, as the smell of kebab meat, saffron, grilled corn and fresh mackerel swirl about you, Istanbul becomes a softer, more pleasant attack on the senses.
Cities are rarely recognized for their softness. They are built for people, filled with oversized elements like roads, buildings and bridges, and made of hard materials like bricks, concrete, glass and steel. “To have another living species claiming their own place in that mix is really special. Witnessing the locals caring about these fellow earthlings is even more so,” Heijnen said.
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