The dogs and cats of Turkey

One of the things that impressed and pleased us the most in Turkey was the way the animals are treated.

Mahatma Ghandi once said that "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated".

Given some of the apparent movements in the Turkish political scene of the last decade, the above sentence may not fully apply but looking at the well fed and well taken care of stray animals of the Turkish streets, my soul was definitely pleasantly surprised.

Right from our arrival in Istanbul we started seeing fairly large dogs wandering the streets. They were well fed, all had tags on their ears and judging by the state of their fur, they were surely well treated. All of them. In fact, many of them were obese!

No, this dog is not pregnant!

But that was not all! These doggies were entirely unafraid of people and as soon as A approached them, they were delighted to be petted and embraced.

Think about it. How many stray dogs are unafraid and receptive of people where you live?

We had heard that for Muslims, dogs are unclean animals and thus unpopular and sometimes mistreated but, in Turkey, quite the opposite situation repeated itself all throughout the country. All stray dogs were large, well fed and loving either if they were alone of if they were in a small group.

But it wasn't just the doggies!

Stray cats were living a life of kings just as much as the canines. Even more so sometimes!

The thing with cats was not just that they were well treated and had food provided to them but they were actually cheeky enough to demand food from people on the street. Yes, demand!

Twice I had cats approach me while I ate and "harass" me for food. The first time was while having breakfast in Istanbul. Our little fury friend gently hopped on the table and calmly put its paw on what then became his cheese. Just like that, the cheeky bugger! And the second time was during dinner as a funny little cat kept tapping my leg under the table so he could get some fish.

Looking at the culture of the people, I can hardly blame them. Whenever a stray animal approached a table the people seemed to almost instantly decide to share a small piece of food with them, which obviously taught them that begging for food is an effective tactic.

And yes, the stray cats were just as loving as the doggies as even A, who famously believes that all cats hate her, had kitties come up to her for huggy time.

Out of all the surprises we had in Turkey, I do believe this was the most satisfying one and we definitely want to congratulate the Turkish people for being this kind to their animals.

I don't really believe in reincarnation but if it is true, I definitely wouldn't mind coming back as a stray dog in Istanbul!