Turkish road sweeper’s act of kindness towards a street cat

This is a super little video. It comes from Turkey. A road sweeper using what appears to be an old-fashioned broom made of selected twigs (or a similar material) starts to gently brush the paws of a street cat. This encourages the cat to request more brushing and then in an act of trust she rolls over onto her back to allow her belly to be brushed as well.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1080339605843558400

It’s a very tender, sweet moment. I would not be surprised if these two knew each other. They might bump into each other on a regular basis. I get this impression because the cat trusts this person so much. In fact, in the video there is another cat in the background. This leads me to believe that this council worker has a good relationship with the stray cats at this location.

Turkey is famous for its cats in many ways. They do have quite a lot of street cats but they accept them as community cats. You’ll see genuine Turkish Angoras on the street. They won’t look like the ones you see in America which are purebred pedigree cats but they will be more genuinely Turkish Angora. The same goes for the Turkish Van. They are Turkish street cats as well but are more genuinely Turkish Van cat than the artificially created version in America and elsewhere.

The Turkish Angoras in the Ankara Zoo are white and they look like traditional Persian cats. This is rather strange. It’s quite confusing as well. In the West we have a certain image of the way pedigree cats look because they are bred for appearance and the members of a certain breed look the same. But in Turkey, the place where the original Turkish Angora and the original Turkish Van cats live they have a different perspective on domestic cats. The appearance of these two breeds in Turkey is completely different to those in America.

The Real Turkish Angora

The Real Turkish Van Cat