Greetings curious readers, writers, and friends. I’m writing from the other side of the world. Though I guess that depends on where you’re reading?
I’m on week 3 of an 8-week jaunt around the globe. My companion and I are drinking the world from a firehose.
We’ve just left Istanbul and I’m currently in a very, very rainy Phuket, Thailand. But I’m in Thailand, so weather be damned.
I’m missing Halloween fun this year. However, since launching my travels, I’ve “caught” The National Day of Spain celebration in Madrid, Spain; Italy’s Truffle festival in Alba, Italy; Athens, Greece’s Ohi Day, which commemorates Greece’s refusal to allow Italy to march through the country in 1940 and subsequently pulled Greece into World War II; and Turkey’s 102nd Republic Day event in Istanbul.
I’ve seen Halloween decorations in all these countries, though I doubt anyone is trick or treating.
I’ve also seen lots of cats, I mean a lot of them!
In my current work in progress, I’ve written in a cat, he’s a rescued stray and integral to the main character’s origin story. I love writing animals into stories. They add humanity. And while that may sound like an oxymoron, the way humans interact with animals tells us a lot about ourselves.
Much can be said and should be said about feral cats and dogs. Cats are voracious hunters. They hunt for food and on instinct and consequently wipe out native populations of amphibians, fish, and birds.
In August, India made news when that country’s supreme court ordered 1 million stray dogs to be removed from the streets. The backlash was immediate, primarily because there was no shelter space for the animals.
I’ve encountered a fine or rather fe-line demarcation between a truly stray cat and what’s the norm in Istanbul.
Istanbul is purring with cats, kedi in Turkish. Greece is too, but Istanbul takes the paw. One of my earliest published pieces was in Cat Fancy magazine where I wrote a piece on the Katten Kabinet museum in Amsterdam. Istanbul has a cat museum in the Galat Tower area of the city. While I was visiting, a cat milestone occurred when a new cat door was opened at the Topkapi Palace in what was once the harem quarters.
You can watch a Turkish documentary called Kedi about the city’s cats.
Islam teaches followers to be ethical towards animals and especially cats. It’s said that the Prophet Mohammad had a special relationship with cats. Turkey is a secular nation but has some of the world’s most famous mosques, such as the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia and a large Islamic population. Cats were revered during the Ottoman Empire for keeping the rodent population in check. And today the legacy is strong.
We found cats everywhere, well fed, healthy, and extremely chill. And a closer look around reveals why. Throughout Istanbul, you’ll see dishes of food, water, and shelters just for them.
Oh… they caterwaul loudly at night and they tumble around, but these are not your ordinary skittish and beat up hard-knock life cats. They are essentially city-wide pets.
We found cats asleep on cars, store awnings, in restaurants, and came down to hotel reception one morning to see a cat sleeping on a couch and another on a bookshelf. We were told they come and go as they please and the staff feeds them.
Everyone steps around them in the city or stops to pet them. Turkey has an out of sight inflation problem and relatively high unemployment. I like to think of the city’s cats as collective pet therapy.
The cats made us smile and the way everyone treats them showed us how people felt about this cultural touch points and their humanity. I picked up this cute cat ring earlier in Alba, Italy not realizing that it would be a seminal memory of this trip.
I have more of Thailand to see and fingers crossed the rain lets up. But sunnier climes are waiting as we continue our great circle of the globe. And if you by chance find yourself traveling internationally, check your seat pocket. You may just find The Pelican Tide as I “accidentally” leave them behind on every plane and train that I can.
Thank you for continuing to leave your reviews. The book is slowly marching to 1000, my goal for 2025. Writing on my current novel continues on the road. Rainy days in Thailand are good for that.
Happy Halloween. Stay safe out there on those streets and if you see a Kedi, smile and say hello.
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