Çok sıcak!

It means "very hot," and it's the phrase I've heard constantly over the past few days. Turkey is experiencing some abnormally hot temperatures right now, so my sightseeing has been limited to the area around my apartment. I haven't done anything too exciting, so this post will be dedicated to one of my favorite aspects of Istanbul: the stray animals.

I know that in many cities stray animals are regarded as a nuisance at best and a severe public health danger at worst, but in Istanbul (or at least my neighborhood) they are more like communal pets than pests. On the Boğaziçi University campus especially, the cats are well fed and love attention. The locals tell me it is perfectly fine to pet the stray animals, if they seem to want attention, as there isn't really a problem with them being diseased. Since I absolutely love cats, having adorable kittens running up to me all the time is paradise. They're much cuter than any strays I've seen in America. I have spent hours running around the neighborhood photographing cats, and I'll probably make an entire album devoted to them at some point. Most of them will simply look at you warily, waiting to see if you have food for them:

Others will be downright friendly, running over to you and rolling around on their backs so you can pet them. Most of the university stray cats were like this.

There also stray dogs, though definitely fewer in number than the cats. I am more wary of them, partly because I am decidedly a cat person and partly because they are more able to hurt me if they want to. However, they basically lay around sleeping and getting fed by locals and are very non-threatening. Today this dog walked up to me on campus wagging its tail and proceeded to follow me throughout my entire walk, stopping every time I would turn around to look, Boo-style:

I finally gave in and carefully petted him, after which he seemed to be in love. He followed me all the way home to my apartment and sat outside the door expectantly, which was a little heartbreaking. As an animal lover, I want to care for every stray that I see, but I have to just ignore them and hope they stay out of trouble. There are rumors, strongly denied by the government, that certain districts (especially my own) poison the stray dogs, leading to painful, slow deaths. I very much hope this isn't the case, because so far these dogs have been either friendly walking companions or merely peaceful residents of local parks.