Türkiye Kedisi - Cats of Turkey

 

Resting in the ruins of Ephesus

For Nicole's Friday Face Off I am sharing cats' faces today. In August 2018, after we had come back from our trip to Turkey, I had already written about the cats of Istanbul. However, somehow I missed to give the cats outside of Istanbul the same "honor". Until today.

In Göreme

The Turkish people are very cat (and dog) friendly people. Especially cats are seen everywhere - most of them are stray cats that nevertheless are looked after. And they are loved by everyone and everyone looks out for them. It was quite amazing to witness.

The cats seem to hang out everywhere - in the streets, in ancient historical sites, in national parks, in museums, even in mosques.

Keeping us company while we had dinner in a street café in Selçuk

We visited the Ephesus Museum in Selçuk and look who was hiding there! Professor Cat, taking a nap.

The roof of the building across from our beautiful small hotel in Selçuk was a meeting point for cats of the neighborhood.

But the highest number of cats we saw in the archaeological site of Ephesus.

It was a punishable hot day and the cats took all the spots in the shade.

They were completely unimpressed by this:

They did what cats can do best - sleeping, napping, resting.

Only a few were a bit more alert.

I guess sleeping in such a historical place on such ancient stones is just perfect for cats. Meow.

If you love cats, you will love this 2016 movie, "Kedi" (cat), about the cats in Istanbul. I loved it. Here is the trailer. 

I might not be able to get to your blogs today. Kibeau is ready to cross the rainbow bridge (he is 18 years old) and we hope the vet can come over tomorrow. Today is probably his last day and I want to be at his side. He has always loved company.

A New Chair and Some Cattitude

 

Last week I bought a teal colored Adirondack chair. The Geek was so kind to assemble it for me. Kibeau is sitting in the back, pretending he isn't interested.

But look!

He ventures closer, still pretending he looks anywhere else but to the chair.

But finally he couldn't contain his curiosity. He decided to ... help.

However, just sitting on the back of the chair is not enough. Let's see whether we can get a bit more comfortable.

This helping business is so much fun! Let's just rest the eyes for a minute.

All this helping is really exhausting!

What? The chair is still not done? After all the help?

Finally...

Here I am enjoying my first cup of morning coffee - on the seventh day of March.

And the best thing about this chair? It comes with a wine glass holder!

Cat and human faces are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

On the internet - I forgot where - I found another wonderful cattitude image that I don't want to keep from you. I can almost hear the cat "speak".

Watercolor Cats

 

Well, I had hoped to write my second part about the weekend in Ostfriesland (here's part 1), but I unfortunately didn't find the time. The last few days were just busy with all kinds of unforeseen stuff. So I'm turning to some watercolors I made both recently and not quite so recently, but which had never found its way into the blog.

I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to watercolors. I simply don't practice enough and while I'm telling myself that I shoud change that, so far I haven't done it. The cards in the top picture are the result of a class with Laly Mille about "art flow cards". 

One of my dreams has been to paint landscapes with watercolor. This is a first try to paint mountains in the distance and closer by.

The following is from a class, but I cannot for the life of me remember which one it was. It is a couple years ago and I remember that I enjoyed it very much. I was surprised that even a few accidents didn't turn up too bad.

And then I stumbled over a couple cat watercolor classes and I was sold. This first one is the result from the first class. I don't remember the name of the teacher. I later gave it to a neighbor who had gifted me a big bag of her apples (that I turned into apple sauce) - she's the owner of Kibeau, the cat who resides in my backyard.

The second class was by Terry Runyan, and she is a real inspiration. Here are a few of my watercolor cats:

One of Terry Runyan's watercolors I liked so much that I tried to create something similar. Cats from the back are a lot easier to paint!

And here's the real cat - Kibeau lazily lying in my open studio door to the garden while I paint, waiting for me to finally get up and offer him a treat.

Cat faces for Nicole's Friday Face Off today!

Cat Face

 

I have always loved the look of cats when they peek around a corner, wall, building... there is something curious and vulnerable about them at the same time. When I found a picture on Pinterest of a black cat in exactly that pose I knew I had to try and paint it.

Of course I did NOT draw the cat myself. I printed out that particular photo and traced the outer shape of the cat on textured paper in the size of an ATC. I knew that I didn't want a black cat - I was thinking purple and magenta shades. And I wanted to use watercolors - I only have a travel kit of Winsor & Newton watercolors with 14 half pans which means I need to mix my colors most of the time. Here I used only two colors and worked on the different shades with more or less water and also let the colors run into each other. I do like the effect. The eyes of the cat are a little bit too green, but I just wasn't able to mix a much lighter, warmer shade. The backgound is made with yellow ochre and a little bit of burnt sienna, and I used a paw stamp with distress ink as the final touch.

I'm linking this to Nicole's Friday Face Off.

There's something weird going on with the cats in our neighborhood. Within two weeks two cats on our block have been found dead. There were no visible injuries, no bites, nothing. We suspect they were poisoned - most probably by rat poison or snail or ant bait. Even fertilizer can be a culprit. Thankfully I have nothing of these in my garden, but I am still concerned about my permanent residents. Usually they don't leave my garden and they are too old or lazy to chase any rodents or birds (which I am very happy about; I still remember when I twice rescued a hummingbird out of Kibeau's mouth; the second time the little bird was flying out of the mouth the moment I had opened it). We just hope that no one intentionally poisons them. Not liking cats is one thing; killing them is a completely different matter.

Otis doesn't have a care in the world (except for getting fed on time) - who knew that a hard rock can be such a comfortable pillow?

Cats And Coffee

 

Do you see the cat on the moped? This little guy entertained us a few years ago while we were sitting in a little street café called "Green Corner" almost right next to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It was the morning after the wedding of the Geek's cousin and we just had a few more hours before his mother, brother and nephew had to leave for the airport for their flights back home (we were lucky to have one more week in Turkey to look forward to). After the wedding that started late in the evening and lasted into the early morning hours, we were a bit tired and didn't feel much like walking around. So we had some iced coffee in this little street café that we had frequented several times during the week before.

However, this was the first time that we saw this cat. It inspected the moped, hopped on the seat and finally lay down to take a short nap.

This wasn't the only time that we were entertained or visited by a cat while taking a coffee break. It happened again when we had a very delicious iced coffee (they make great iced coffee in Turkey) in a little street café in Selçuk (which is not far from the famous site of Ephesus).

We were planning the next day when this little cat turned up and decided to hang out right next to us. I ended up resting halfway on the sidewalk and halfway on the street. It didn't mind since everybody in Turkey seemed to be very considerate of stray cats and dogs. The Turkish people feed them, give them places to sleep safely, care for them, even pay veterinary bills if the need arises. If a cat crosses a street, traffic comes to a stop and everybody waits patiently until the little stinker is on the other side of the street. I've never seen a country where stray animals are so much loved as in Turkey.

Back in Istanbul, we of course paid a last visit to the "Green Corner" for our last Turkish iced coffee. There was no way we would leave without a final taste of this delicacy.

Guess who was there? Our little moped loving four-legged friend.

Have you watched the movie "Kedī" (Turkish for 'cat')? It's a wonderful little movie about the cats in Istanbul and the people of Istanbul. I watched it after having been to Istanbul and I felt like being back in the magical city. I wrote about the cats of Istanbul here.

The coffee, of course, is for the T gang - all gathered for Elizabeth's T Tuesday.