For centuries now, cats have been the real rulers of Istanbul.

Many locals see them as community animals. You'll often find bowls of food and water on the streets, and occasionally you'll spot cat houses, sometimes even ones maintained by the city. But you'll have better luck finding them in quiet alleys rather than on the busiest streets.

The cats are super social and not scared of people at all. Usually stray animals are more wary of strangers, but not here. Almost all of them are totally fine with being petted. And if you stumble upon a whole group, you might even catch some funny moments of jealousy, where one cat won't let the others near a person.

There's no way to really cover this topic with just a couple of photos in one post. I really recommend checking out the Turkish documentary Kedi about 7 Istanbul cats. It's in Turkish, but there are tons of subtitles available, including Russian. Even though it's about animals, it really emphasizes their relationships with the locals. It totally changed how I see the city.