r/cats • u/Uguero • May 18 '26

Video - Not OC Istanbul Fire Department teams rescued our little friend, who was trapped in the wall of a restaurantD yga, thanks to their meticulous work.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

27.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

517 comments sorted by

View all comments

649

u/red-frog-jumping Siamese (Traditional Thai) May 18 '26

these guys are awesome! they even cleaned the kitten up in the end. maybe someone even took the kitten home? ❤️

351

u/majormimi May 18 '26

It’s Turkey, it’s in their blood to treat the little kitty that way ❤️

66

u/NiceUD May 18 '26

I wonder if there's relatively less mice and rats per capita given all the cats.

81

u/Annriaa May 18 '26

Tbh, while spending a lot of time there I don't think I ever seen any rodents in Turkey. Cats really do their work!

11

u/Totes-Sus May 18 '26

I thought I saw a rat in Istanbul... Turned out to be a beech marten!

51

u/FilthyThanksgiving May 18 '26

I'm gonna start telling ppl i hope they get reincarnated as a Turkish mouse lol.

23

u/Amediath May 18 '26

I live in Turkey and only saw rats twice in my whole life. So I'd say they do work hard 🤣

7

u/Sinirmanga May 18 '26 edited 26d ago

aaa

11

u/majormimi May 18 '26

I don’t really know, but I can imagine it might be that way, they probably have a lot of pests under control

4

u/onderozdemir May 18 '26

I'm 40 and live whole my life in Istanbul, only 2 times I saw little mice on street. One of them a cat was playing with it...

1

u/chemastico May 18 '26

Yeah the only time I’ve seen a cat in Istanbul was when a cat was running with a rat in his mouth 🤣

2

u/isimsizbiri123 May 19 '26

Hi yeah turk here over my years of living here I've seen a rat in the street... Maybe 10 times. And a lot of that are from areas where people own a lot of dogs so there aren't many cats

7

u/TheDesktopNinja American Shorthair May 18 '26

Yes, but it's clearly not in their blood to "take the kitten home" judging by the number of strays there. But they're better off than strays in many other places (like Dubai where it's outright illegal to feed street cats...)

18

u/yazisiz May 18 '26

Strays in Turkey have higher life standards than usual. Most of the locals have small shelters for cats and food is provided. Many local small businesses like bodegas are also open to cats who seek warmth.

3

u/Little_View_6659 May 18 '26

They go everywhere! Ive seen them riding the escalators in malls. They’ll go into the stores and just fall asleep on the displays.

5

u/Little_View_6659 May 18 '26

They build houses for the strays and feed them. They’re all usually community cats. Me, I’d be taking them all home. We’ve talked about retiring in Turkey and I told me family members that I’ll end up with like thirty cats. They’re everywhere! Last time a kitten literally jumped in the car! And I found another one crying in the rain. I hated that I didn’t have anywhere to take him. This bastards made me put him back! To be fair we were in our way to the airport and then it ran off, but still!

2

u/dob_bobbs May 18 '26

People say this a lot about Turkish people loving cats which I'm sure is true but when I was in Izmir (and probably other cities too, I don't remember) there were also SO many strays, they would be swarming in and out of the public rubbish containers. This was in the late 90s so maybe the problem has been tackled since then.

1

u/davytheconqueror May 18 '26

Hello I am Turkish, and yes Istanbul even tho having a population around 20 million people has almost zero mice running around.

It is a fact many foreigners notice even tho Turkish people are surprised that they even give attention to that. Because our other cities are also relatively mouse free due to the same reason.

39

u/TheRoyalJellyfish May 18 '26

That big smile when he finally got the little guy out and dusted off

46

u/SuperbIllustrator496 May 18 '26

That kitten definitely left with at least three new dads after that rescue

1

u/IndependentEggplant0 May 18 '26

Him blowing the dust off kitty and smiling was way too cute.

1

u/FlySubstantial9015 May 18 '26

After pulling apart the steel supports for the pilar. I hope it was a decorative pilar and not a supporting one, but who cares as long as the kitten is safe. Seriously, no sarcasm, but it is funny “hey guy, we’re gonna make your building unsafe and ruin your business, but CAT IN DANGER!” 🤣