Pensive Cat

Pensive Cat
Originally uploaded by enlightened0ne

I thought I'd break my Turkey post into a number of (disjointed) posts based on some photos that I am processing. Please tell me what you think about this idea, if anyone except me still reads this. :P

Cats are everywhere in Turkey, and I mean /everywhere/! The funny thing is that they're not malnourished, and nor are they scared of humans in the way wild cats in Australia or England are. In fact, I was so surprised when I got back to London and saw a cat running away from me, because I had just spent two weeks with very friendly and obedient cats. All cats in Turkey seem to have an intuitive understanding that "tss tss" means "Go away" and a sound I can't represent with letters (that is made by creating negative pressure in the mouth with the mouth open but the tongue at the roof of the mouth, then pulling the tongue downwards, making a click-kind of sound) means "look this way".

I met a range of cats, from very boisterous kittens to slow, stately older cats. One particular kitten would not stop moving, and hunted everything that moved, including one's feet as soon as one dared to lift them. Tying my shoes with the cat attacking both my hands and my shoelaces was a rather amusing experience, and I only managed by diverting its attention to my mother's shoelaces.

Funnily enough, with cats everywhere, dogs would probably be expected, but except in the rural areas they are completely absent. I think this has to do with the fact that dogs are haram for muslims. Even in rural areas, they are quite rare, though we had an interesting experience in one town where we were adopted by a dog for part of a walk, until we came to a blind corner (in a ruined Greek village). Around the corner was a man with a slingshot and a large rock, attempting to ambush an kill the dog. The dog had clearly met him before and refused to round the corner, whereupon the man came around and, disregarding our party, began shouting at the dog and attempting to shoot it. Fortunately the dog was clever enough to get away and we were spared the sight of an injury or death... Talking to a local later it turned out that man was a bit strange, and that he and the dog have quite a history. It seems quite propitious for the dog that the man was a poor shot with his shanghai!

(oh, this photo has my new watermark... I thought I should start adding that since I'm starting to sell them, though I don't know whether I should make it more obvious. I don't want it to get too much in the way, but I want to prevent people from taking the photos without permission...any comments?)