Biker cat

Istanbul is filled with street cats. You see them everywhere and it seems that people make an effort to take care of them. It’s not uncommon to find piles of cat food and minced meat lying on sidewalks and especially late in the day you see the cats crouched around them.

The café I go to has a café cat. It has a favorite chair next to the window and the first two days I was there I was amused to watch a couple of people come in, head for that table, see the cat, and turn to find a different seat. When the waiters offered to shoo the cat the customers refused, saying, no, no, don’t disturb him. One of the waiter’s even picked the cat up, somehow managing to keep him in his sleeping position, and rocked him back and forth. The café cat barely opened his eyes.

As I wind my way through the streets to the café I always take the same path. In front of one of the buildings I pass a motorcycle is always parked in the same spot, and sleeping on the motorcycle seat is always a little gray and white cat. The first time I saw her I thought she had just chosen a funny place to sleep that day, but by the third time I realized this was her regular spot. She is always deep in sleep. Sometimes there is black cat lurking around the motorcycle but the little gray cat is the only one who sleeps on it. I look for her now so this morning as I passed the spot I noticed the motorcycle was missing. As I approached I saw that she was sleeping in the spot where the motorcycle normally parks! On my way back I saw the motorcycle was still out and about in Istanbul, so she was sleeping on the trunk of a car next to the motorcycle’s parking spot waiting for her ride to return.