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Istanbul Improves the Lives of its Thousands of Stray Cats with Elaborate Outdoor Cat Houses
Famed for their welcoming attitude towards stray cats, Istanbul residents are building elaborate cat houses for their feline neighbors.
Social & Lifestyle
In Istanbul, a city of 15 million people that’s famous for its relaxed attitude towards stray cats, groups of volunteers build elaborate houses for their feline neighbors.
There, cats can find donated food and toys, cushions and boxes to keep them out of harsh weather, and even a new owner if they’re lucky.
It all started back in 2008, when, according to one source, an interior architect named Didem Gokgoz regularly passed through a park on her way to work in the district of Sisli—in which there were always stray cats trying to find places to keep warm in winter.
Attempting to help the felines, she placed several plastic boxes they could shelter in around Mistik Park, but officials removed them because they were seen as an eyesore.
Gradually, Gokgoz came to know the people who would feed the stray cats, and formed a plan to build more refined and pleasant shelters anchored to the ground with chains. Gokgoz invited the mayor to a meeting, and the idea was discussed in circumstances that perhaps drove home the need for some sort of action.
“There were three of us in the pouring rain: Me, my lawyer friend, and Mr. Mustafa Sarigul [then the Sisli mayor],” Gokgoz reported to Tol, a solutions-focused journalism outlet in Istanbul.