Istanbul street cat is feed with a knife and fork at a restaurant

Istanbul street cat gets his way at a restaurant. Screen grab.

This is what I like to see only street cats can have fleas and sometimes very badly but this fella seems very healthy so perhaps he is looked after. I think he is a bit of a feature at this Istanbul restaurant and in being known he manages to get his way which is great.

The Turkish are pretty sensitive to the needs of stray cats which are often better described as community cats. Turkey (Türkiye) is the land of community cats.

This is a nice guy. The person with whom he is eating predicted the cat would arrive as they have their camera ready.

Street cats in Istanbul be like
byu/ledim35 inMadeMeSmile

In Istanbul, street cats are a bit of a feature and there are several reasons for this. I can think of three or four. Firstly, Turkey is an Islamic country and you probably know that the Prophet Muhammad loved cats and this has fed through over the centuries to the 21st century. 

His love of cats helps to protect stray cats today across the world where the Islam faith is predominant. Although it doesn't completely save them from being abused because even within the Islam faith you will find good and bad people and some people liking and some disliking cats but there's this background appreciation of the cat thanks to the Prophet.

Secondly, there are lots of tourists and visitors to Istanbul which is situated on the Bosphorus Strait. Tourists like to interact with the cats and feed them. In fact, the man in the video might be a tourist but I don't think that he is.

And perhaps the cats have become a tourist feature of Istanbul, part of the attraction of the city for tourists.

And thirdly, it's probably fair to say that Turkish residents might have a less than optimal attitudes towards spaying and neutering cats and therefore when they become strays they procreate. Although the municipality of Istanbul has implemented various initiatives to control the population with TNR programs.

And fourthly, Turkey is quite a warm place and this helps to foster the procreation of street cats because they are protected by the climate.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.