Caturday felid trifecta: Istanbul as “Catstanbul”; Oxford college cats; Simon, a very brave cat; and lagniappe

One of the first things you notice after arriving in Istanbul—indeed, anywhere in Turkey—is the profusion of street cats, most of whom are in excellent condition. The Turks love their cats, and take care of the street cats, providing them with food and sometimes with housing. Some of this may be due to Islam, which, as Wikipedia notes in a whole article on Islam and cats:

The cat is considered “the quintessential pet” by many Muslims, and is admired for its cleanliness.

Unlike many other animals, Islamic Law considers cats ritually pure and that cats possess barakah (blessings), and allows cats to freely enter homes and even mosques. Cats are believed to be the most common pet in Muslim countries.

Turkey is almost entirely Muslim, of course, but there seems to be extra affection for cats beyond that held by the faith.  Here, for example is a picture I took of the famous cat Gli, whom I encountered (and fed) in the Hagia Sofia, where she lived.  Gli passed away in 2020 at the age of 16.

The article below appeared on the BBC news, documenting love of cats by the people of Istanbul. The author Jeff Bogle, is identifed as “. . . . the author of the first-ever travel guidebook for cat lovers: Street Cats & Where to Find Them: The Most Feline-Friendly Cities and Attractions Around the World.  Now that sounds like a book worth having, and would make a nice holiday gift

Click the headline below to read the story; I’ll give a few excerpts (indented).  I can’t reproduce the photos because of copyright considerations, but I’ll put up a video and a few of my own photos from Catstanbul. And you should definitely watch the film Kedi (“cat” in Turkish), a superb documentary of a selection of Istanbul’s street cats. It won several prizes and has a 98% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

A few excerpts:

From Ottoman “cat sitters” to modern-day street guardians, Istanbul’s bond with its cats runs centuries deep.

In Istanbul, a delicate balance is struck daily in its winding streets, mosques, 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,” says 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 neighbourhoods”.

Some pictures of kitties I took in 2008 (all photos are mine):

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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.”

. . . 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.

. . . . Unlike some less hospitable spots around the globe, where life on the streets is far less kind to stray animals, the cats of Istanbul seem to have it made. Walk the historic area of Fatih to see the famous Blue and Hagia Sofia mosques, and you’re likely to spot Sulo the cat. The plump grey and white tabby will be posing be posing for tourist photos in Sultanahmet Square, never far from the newsagent who cares for him. In hillside neighbourhoods and along the Bosphorus, cats lounge on benches and steps and curl up for midday naps in A-frame wooden cat houses. Outside markets and metro stations, bowls of dry food and water wait for hungry kitties to pass by, and locals and visitors share portions of their café meals with street cats gently brushing up against legs.

I love the first one below, taken outside an Istanbul Museum. Cat on cat!

This is an absolutely typical scene at an Istanbul outdoor cafe:

Many shops also keep cats as pets, an effective lure for visitors to venture inside. Many more leave out food and water bowls for strays passing by, like commuters on their way to and from work. “The symbiotic relationship between cats and humans first began in this part of the world,” said Heijnen. “During Ottoman times, cats were kept for practical reasons. They worked to help keep vermin away from stored food.”

These days, cats have a different job. They are unofficial tourist ambassadors, softening the edges of a hard, busy city. Many of Istanbul’s street cats will appear at your feet and in your photos, their faces, paws and purrs remaining lodged in your head and heart long after you leave this place. They are an alluring reminder of what’s possible when we peacefully share our spaces, our food and our lives with others, at home and while travelling.

There is much more to see in Istanbul than cats, but the felids are definitely a high spot.

A trailer for “Kedi”, and you can purchase the full-length movie at this site.  The moviemakers rigged up a device that could photograph the city from a cat’s-eye view:

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Moving west, we have an article from the Oxford Clarion on the college cats of Oxford.  Oxford comprises numerous separate colleges that operate semi-autonomously, and some of them have named resident cats. Click below to read some excerpts (indented):

Once upon a time, we featured an image of Magdalen’s kitten, Ozymandias, in our newsletter. We figured it might be a gentle contrast to our regular diet of planning and local politics.

The grey ball of fluff with the steely eyes proved so popular that we got repeated requests for more Ozymandias content. But just as we aim to give an airing to all Oxford’s political parties, so too do all the college cats of Oxford deserve equal billing with Ozymandias.

We have even made you a cat map (mainly because we liked the name). Don’t go cat-napping them, they’re precious. We hope it cheers up your wintry week. We have a feline this may be our best article yet.

Here’s the map from BlueHair:

I reckon you can learn a lot about the atmosphere in various Oxford colleges by looking at what they choose to name their cats (courtesy of @oxfordclarion.bsky.social ). We should all aspire to the energy of a Teabag, Isambard Kitten Brunel, or an Admiral Flapjackoxfordclarion.uk/college-cats…

— Joshua Bull (@joshuabull.bsky.social) 2025-11-21T13:01:28.455Z

And a few named cats (photos are in the article):

From Exeter College:

Walter de Staplecat (@walter_the_exeter_cat) lives at Exeter College, and is named after the college founder Walter de Stapledon. He arrived at the college in 2020 when his then owner brought him in to keep her company in lockdown. When they left the college, Walter stayed; he has since become a solid, high-profile figure at Exeter. As honorary feline he likes to spend time in the Rector’s Garden or, if the sun is shining, finding a sunny spot in the front quad. Rumours always go around about Walter’s personal life, but he’s a very solitary cat and likes his own company. (He has, however, been known to accept Dreamies and scritches.)

From St Hilda’s:

Teabag arrived at St Hilda’s in late 2014, and was adopted by the Lodge, which she has been running ever since. She was named Teabag as there was a grey cat named Earl Gray wandering about at the time – the father of her kittens, which she had in the Lodge. (It all happened rather quickly, and she is now spayed!)

Carrying herself like an Egyptian god with emerald-green eyes, Teabag likes going out for walks in the gardens. She is particularly keen on exploring the river pathway in college, from where she enjoys watching punters and ducks, chasing butterflies and feathers on sticks, and getting into (gentle) fights with the other feline residents. You can find Teabag on instagram here and here.

From Hertford:

Hertford’s Simpkin is the fourth in the Simpkin dynasty, and has been with the college since January 2017. He came to Hertford as a rescue cat after being abandoned in Devon. Simpkin isn’t known for being warm and cuddly. He values his personal space, but he has graciously adopted a few people and places. Clearly a studious type, he’s most likely to be found in the Academic Office or the Library.

Hertford is, of course, on Catte Street. In the 15th Century this was also known as Mousecatchers’ Lane, or Vicus Murilegorum.

And a warning about Simpkin the Fourth:

Simpkin IV is a menace (I remember the previous one, he was a nice calm cat!). Apparently he ended up in Hertford after his previous rescue caught fire, but I'm convinced that 'twas he who set the house ablaze. This was previously on the door of the Exeter College library…

— Natasha Simonova (@philistella.bsky.social) 2025-11-21T19:35:23.965Z

There are many others at the site, so go have a look.

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Wikipedia has a fascinating article about Simon the Cat, a brave and decorated moggie in the British Navy.  Excerpts (the Yangtze incident involved the Communist insurgents attacking British ships in the Yangtze River):

Simon (c. 1947 – 28 November 1949) was a ship’s cat who served on the Royal Navy sloop-of-war HMS Amethyst. In 1949, during the Yangtze Incident, he received the PDSA’s Dickin Medal after surviving injuries from an artillery shell, raising morale, and killing off a rat infestation during his service.

. . .The badly wounded cat crawled on deck, and was rushed to the medical bay, where the ship’s surviving medical staff cleaned his burns, and removed four pieces of shrapnel, but he was not expected to last the night. He managed to survive, however, and after a period of recovery, returned to his former duties in spite of the indifference he faced from the new captain, Lieutenant Commander John Kerans. While anchored in the river, the ship had become overrun with rats, and Simon took on the task of removing them with vigour, as well as raising the morale of the sailors.

Following the ship’s escape from the Yangtze, Simon became an instant celebrity, lauded in British and world news, and presented with the “Animal Victoria Cross“, the Dickin Medal; as of 2025, Simon is the only cat to win the award. He was also awarded a Blue Cross medal, the Amethyst campaign medal, and the fanciful rank of ‘Able seacat’ (cf. Able seaman) after disposing of a particularly vicious rat known as “Mao Tse-tung” (cf. Mao Zedong). Thousands of letters were written to him, so many that one Lt. Stewart Hett was appointed “cat officer” to deal with Simon’s post. At every port Amethyst stopped at on its route home, Simon was honoured, and a special welcome was made for him at Plymouth in November when the ship returned. Simon was, however, like all animals entering the UK, subject to quarantine regulations, and was immediately sent to an animal centre in Surrey.

Here’s a photo of Simon from Facebook posted by The Animal Rescue Site by GreaterGood:

Sadly, Simon died from his war wounds:

Whilst in quarantine, Simon contracted a virus and, despite the attentions of medical staff and thousands of well-wishers, died on 28 November 1949 from a complication of the viral infection caused by his war wounds. Hundreds, including the entire crew of HMS Amethyst, attended his funeral

The caption for the next photo is “Simon’s resting place at the PDSA Animal Cemetery in Ilford”.  He was a good boy:

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Lagniappe: Cat meets piglets (description here).  Well, they don’t really look like friends!

@southerncharmersfarm

This is the most unusual friendship 😘 #cuteanimals #farmlife #funny #creatersearchingsight #friends

♬ Curious Cats – Eitan Epstein Music

h/t: Marion