Caturday: Istanbul

A wonderful shot by Tokyo-based photographer Jon Siegel, shared in the Boing Boing Flickr pool.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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scifijazznik

Did he used to be named Catstantinople?
- Talia
  
  That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Did he used to be named Catstantinople?
  
  Only after the Battle of the Meowvian Bridge.
http://www.s40theme.info Desta

Cats are adorable.
- EH
  
  You do know what “rel=nofollow” means, right?
SomeGuyNamedMark

I loved the kitties (kedi) of Istanbul. They were very friendly and most of them were being taken care of (clean, some had collars, very few looked sick). I had a very cute kitten jump up onto my lap at a cafe and snuggle in for a nap. I even caught a bored barber who had no customers who was playing with a cat who had wandered into his shop and jumped up into one of the chairs. I think he just needed a trim off his whiskers.
Henrix Gudmundsson

I loved the cats in Istanbul, and clearly so did the people living there!
They left food for them, and seemed to like them, even giving them tidbits from restaurants.

There were even cats wandering around inside Hagia Sophia, flirting with the tourists.

And the cats were friendly – one of them even captured my girlfriends heart, and she’s no cat lover.
Marko Raos

Cats in Istanbul are the most beautiful and happiest cats in the world! While I was on a trip there I couldn’t but stop and stare how… self-conscious (if that’s the right word) they were! I could swear some of them began to pose when I stopped to take a picture!

My turkish friend later explained that Istanbul was saved from the black plague by a smart sultan who imported two sailing ships full of cats from Egypt (the unloading must have been a sight, lol) While Europe was happily burning cats alive for being “the devil’s animals” scientifically advanced turks realized that it was the rats who were spreading the plague. Ever since cats are considered almost sacred in Istanbul and common slang for someone born in Istanbul is “cat” in turkish.
- Culturedropout
  
  I bet it was like… herding cats… ;-)
Comrade7

I loved the cats in Istanbul! Here’s a mom nursing her kitten in the middle of the super crowded Spice Bazaar.
http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch

Istanpurr was Concatinople,
Now it’s Istanpurr, not Concatinople,
Been a long time gone, Concatinople,
Now it’s Southern Delight on a Caturday night.