One thing I noticed while I was traveling around, particularly in the Balkans, was the amount of stray cats around most cities.  Some places, you couldn’t go very far at all without nearly tripping over a cat.  Istanbul was one of those places.  There were cats everywhere.  Which was awesome, because I love cats!!

Now, I think many people have a preconceived notion on what a stray cat looks like.  Something scraggly…  Thin, maybe missing some fur in places.  Perhaps, a protruding tooth.

These cats were some of the nicest looking cats I’ve ever seen in my life.

See?  Super pretty cats.

Now, some of the cats were questionably homeless.  This little girl seemed to live in a shop.  But we couldn’t quite figure out if she actually lived there, or if, perhaps, it had just snuck into the shop and curled up in the window.  I mean, how often do you actually look in the window when you’re working in a shop?

This one actually did live in a shop.  She was a shop cat.  And super friendly.  I don’t know how that would impact sales.  I think it would make me go in more… but, I think I would also be so distracted that I would never buy anything.  Thinking back on it now, I can’t remember anything in the shop.  Though I think there were clothes there.

These cats wanted to be shop cats. But alas. Street cat.

Sometimes all the cats would group together. Not sure if they were planning on attacking the next person that walked down that alley, or what. But it wasn’t the only time I saw that. Strength in numbers, I suppose.

This is skeptical cat. Skeptical cat doesn’t know why you’re taking it’s picture. It’s not angry, it’s just pretty sure you’re wasting your time. Skeptical cat thinks you should be doing something else.