Kedi

In Istanbul, the cat is more than just a cat.

The cat embodies the indescribable chaos,

the culture, and the uniqueness that is the essence of Istanbul.

Without the cat, Istanbul would lose a part of its soul.

And there's nothing like it anywhere else on earth.

She's a real hunter now. She wasn't like that before.

She changed after giving birth.

Before that, all she did was sleep.

Chilling here all day.

Sometimes I talk to her. And she actually talks back.

She's a solid character.

She'll stubbornly stand there.

You'll tell her to leave. She won't, she'll just stare.

"I'm not leaving," she'll say, "where are you kicking me out to?"

"I'll be back anyway".

"What are you trying to do, wise guy?"

She's really, you know, strong-willed.

She's got personality.

Some cats really have character, you can tell from their faces.

I think it's wrong to trap them in a house...

just so we can pet them.

There are millions of them out there, we pet them all we want.

What matters is being on the same frequency as them.

To communicate with them.

Besides, they can tell... who likes them and who doesn't.

They notice.

And they give off good energy.

They absorb all your negative energy.

We're lucky. They do me good.

It's that time again.

Time to cruise. She comes and goes.

She came around one day. I knew she'd been pregnant.

It was obvious she had given birth.

She led me to the back, to show me her kittens.

It's so fascinating...

they're just like people.

The love of animals is a different kind of love.

People who don't love animals can't love people either.

I know that much.

Bengü!

Bengü!

Come. Come, girl.

She was one of four kittens.

She was the scrawniest one. And the ugliest.

The other three left, she stayed.

Sometimes she makes me angry.

But why? I've never thought about it.

I guess I must be in a bad mood.

But I never hit her or anything.

I tell her to leave but she never does. She walks to the door and comes back.

Bengü has been with us eight or nine years.

She came here as a kitten… and never left.

Bengü loves to be loved. Honestly.

She loves it when you pet her... she nearly passes out.

It's not the kind of sappiness from old Turkish movies...

but I do look for her.

If I don't see her, or hear her voice…

if she's not around when I get here in the morning…

I get worried and look for her.

Maybe she is like a child.

People miss their kids, right? I miss her.

Bengü is very delicate.

If you pet another cat, she'll get jealous and sulk.

She's very sensitive, Bengü.

That's it, that's the spot.

That's the spot.

She's done for. And then here.

And here.

Look at her delight.

You really know how to live.

Bengü has given birth but I haven't seen where.

Try attacking her kittens and you'll see another side of her.

I've heard they'd always keep a cat on board a ship.

To absorb your excess energy. I know soil does the same thing.

Prayer beads do the trick for me.

This cat is good for me too.

Besides, we've gotten used to her.

She's become one of us.

Coming and going unconditionally.

And endless conversations too.

THESE CUPS ARE FOR CATS AND DOGS.

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE DESPERATE FOR A CUP OF WATER IN THE NEXT LIFE...

DON'T TOUCH THESE CUPS.

They can't just fly away like birds.

It's our responsibility to take care of them as best as we can.

It is said that cats are aware of God's existence…

but that dogs are not.

Dogs think people are God, but cats don't.

Cats know that people act as middlemen to God's will.

They're not ungrateful, they just know better.

Petting a cat gives me a peculiar sense of security.

Even though we don't speak each other's language...

we immediately form a shared language.

I imagine having a relationship with cats

must be a lot like being friends with aliens.

You make contact with a very different life form…

open a line of communication with one another...

and start a dialogue.

And they're very foreign to us, very different.

Whether physically, mentally, or in capacity

they're very different.

Yet, we're able to have a relationship with them.

Of course I can't take the place of their mother…

but I do what I can.

I wonder if I should feed them again.

Alright, alright, I'm gonna feed you.

When they're full, they don't make a peep.

They're really hungry.

Someone dumped them over by the shops. Then they brought them over here.

Relying on me being here.

I had an incident with a cat, it'll shock you if I tell you.

About fifteen years ago

my boat was docked over there, it sank in a storm.

I had barely managed to pay for it.

Sold whatever I had.

But got the boat.

I barely had it a week and the boat sinks.

Then, I'm walking over by the rocks there…

it's extraordinary what I'm about to tell you.

I'm walking along, I see this cat, pointing me to a wallet.

A cat the same color as this one... no lie.

Exactly that color.

Meow, meow! I thought, what's up with this cat?

Does it have rabies or something?

I was a bit scared.

So I went to have some tea.

But something kept bothering me to get the wallet.

Even the tea guy asked if I was OK.

I said, I don't know, something strange is going on.

I got up, took a look inside the wallet…

I swear, I needed 120 lira… and there was 120 lira inside that wallet.

Whoever doesn't believe this story is a heathen in my books.

Can you imagine? God Almighty.

What is that if not a godsend?

That's how my love for animals began.

After I found that wallet, I started caring for cats.

But taking care of cats isn't easy.

I have to give them milk, if I'm gonna keep them alive.

These guys are quite big, they should survive.

But neglect them for a couple of days, they'd surely die.

They survived in that box because it's warm in there.

And that chubby one came along and became a mother to them.

He keeps them warm. I guess they think he's their mother too.

Both a father and a mother.

He's both a father and a mother to them.

- You have two children at home, right? - Yes, I have two.

So you know what it's like to be a parent.

Oh, it's tough.

Whether we like it or not, there are rats that live here by the sea.

And because we're people, we don't give them space to live.

But admittedly, they are a pest...

and it's not good for them to be around where people eat.

We considered rat poison, we've used that in the past.

But just when we decided to let the rats die on their own…

this little lion of a cat showed up.

He takes care of them at night, as nature dictates.

We didn't tell him to hunt the rats, he took it upon himself.

To tell you the truth, he earns his keep.

You know the saying, "do justice to one's love"?

That's what he does. He does justice to the love he gets.

We're grateful to him.

Life is beautiful.

If you know how to live.

You can love if your heart is open.

Everything is beautiful when you look at it with love.

If you can enjoy the presence of a cat, a bird, a flower…

what can I say, all the world will be yours.

She is the toughest of all the females.

Trouble for all the fishermen.

A fish thief.

Arch enemy of the dogs.

She'll chase any of them, even pit bulls.

She's the neighborhood psychopath.

She doesn't like soft love.

She likes tough love.

She'll start from the top of the church and patrol the whole place.

She's a very interesting animal.

The only thing she'll steal is fish.

She'll stand in front of the fish vendors over there

refusing to leave even if they shoo her away.

She won't take anchovies or mackerel either, she prefers bluefish.

Then she'll make the fishermen chase her all the way here.

She likes to live a life of luxury.

She even makes her husband respect her.

She chases him off.

She's leaving so he can eat.

Now, Osman Pasha gets his turn.

She doesn't want to lose him to anyone else either.

Girls prettier than Psycho have come around, right?

There's an instinctive jealousy.

She's like a vicious housewife.

A jealous housewife who doesn't leave her husband alone.

And doesn't let anyone else near him either.

She comes around when she wants to be loved.

Gets her fill of love and leaves.

But I can't do as I please.

I grabbed her tail, she bit my hand.

But she does as she wishes.

That's very important to me.

That she never compromises her freedom.