12/02/2026

LYFE THURSDAY | FEB 12, 2026

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K ANYON is getting fat. Since someone stole his basket, this white cat with grey markings who lives at an Istanbul shopping centre has been showered with snacks, love and affection. News of his plight brought out countless well-wishers, who have handed him endless supplies of food, toys, a comfortable cat house – and his very own Instagram page run by a fan. He is not alone as according to City Hall, Istanbul has more than 160,000 cats living on its streets who are regularly fed and fussed over by the city’s 16 million residents. These street cats are looked after with an almost religious devotion. Whether on the Asian or European side of Istanbul – or the ferries connecting them – cats can be seen everywhere, from snoozing on restaurant chairs, wandering through supermarkets or curled up in shop windows. Even more, they are rarely – if ever – disturbed. “Istanbulites love animals. Here, cats can walk into shops and curl up on the most expensive of fabrics. That’s why they call it ‘the city of cats,’”explained Gaye Koselerden, 57, looking at Kanyon’s toy-filled corner, which looks like a child’s bedroom. strays have turned into much-loved neighbourhood mascots. In Kadikoy, locals set up a bronze statue in 2016 to immortalise Tombili (Turkish for “chubby”), a pot-bellied feline whose characteristic pose – lounging on benches with one paw draped over the edge – spawned across countless internet memes. When Gli, the tabby mascot of Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sofia basilica-turned-mosque, died, an obituary in the Turkish press recalled how she was stroked by US president Barack Obama when he visited in 2009. At the neighbouring Topkapi Palace, the opulent residence of the Ottoman sultans, they have restored a centuries-old cat flap. “Cats have always been here, no doubt because they are clean and close to humans,” the site’s director Ilhan Kocaman said. The presence of so many cats in the city has often been explained with reference to the deep affection the Prophet Muhammad had for them. When Ottomans seized Constantinople in 1453, they found cats waiting to be fed outside fish From pre-Ottoman times Like Kanyon, many

Kanyon, a stray cat that lives at the entrance of an Istanbul shopping mall, is stroked by a young girl as he lays in his basket, in Istanbul.

Living life like sultans

Paris and its cultural heritage are a winning literary combination – from The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo to The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – but Schlesser thinks he hit a chord for other reasons. “There’s a passion for the arts, but what I feel above all is universal sensitivity to the bonds around transmission between generations, between a grandfather and a granddaughter. “And there’s another very important thing, particularly among Americans I sensed, it’s that Mona’s Eyes is a book that addresses the subject of disability,” he added. In an article about the “surprise encouraging the spread of rodents. “Normally, cats chase rats. But in Istanbul, you can see the rats eating the food alongside the cats. We must tackle this,” the region’s governor Davut Gul recently warned. Although several such clips did the rounds on social media, they seem to have had a limited impact. “I’ve lived here for four months and I’ve never seen a single rat. In Germany, we have many rats but here, with so many cats, they must be afraid. Without its cats, Istanbul just would not be the same. Here people and cats live side by side, as equals,” said Fatime Ozarslan, a 22-year-old student originally from Germany as she put out a sachet of wet food in Macka Park, which is home to at least 100 cats. – AFP

Book-selling behemoth Barnes and Noble named Mona’s Eyes its book of the year. Worldwide, it has been translated into 37 languages and has sold a million copies, around half of them in home market France where Schlesser has become a The book tells the story of a grandfather who educates his granddaughter Mona about the beauty of art after she is told by doctors she risks going blind. The pair visit the most famous museums in Paris – the Louvre, the o Istanbul’s pampered street cats stalls and butchers’ shops. Giving the cats food was seen as an offering in the name of God”, explained Istanbul University’s veterinary history department expert Altan Armutak. Living side by side Six centuries later, cats have retained their historic presence in Istanbul although these days, City Hall is trying to manage their numbers, sterilising more than 43,000 cats last year, 12 times more than in 2015. Authorities are concerned about residents’ often over-generous offerings of food, which they fear is literary celebrity. Success formula

A cat passes through a cat flap on the door at the The Ottoman Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. – PICS FROM AFP

Mona’s Eyes : How obscure French art historian swept globe FRENCH art historian Thomas Schlesser is still adapting to life as a best-selling author having written one of the break-out hits of the last year in Mona’s Eyes . New York Times best-selling hard-back fiction chart shortly before Christmas and has sold an estimated 250,000 copies there. Musee d’Orsay and the Pompidou Centre – where Mona learns about everything from Renaissance work to abstractism.

The Gardener’s Cat features Louis, a hypersensitive gardener devastated by the impending loss of his kitten, which has a tumour. His new neighbour Thalie, a retired literature teacher, lifts his spirits by introducing him – over glasses of pastis liquor – to some 80 poets, from Verlaine to Aime Cesaire, including Baudelaire and the Italian Gaspara Stampa. “I can personally attest poetry can truly save your life when you’re struggling. And even when you’re doing well, it can make life more intense,” Schlesser explained. He believes there is a “resurgence of poetry among younger generations”. Having helped popularise art and museum-going, he is hoping to have the same effect on the written word.

hit novels” of 2025, The New York Times noted at a time when thrillers and “sexy fantasy books about dragons” were the hottest reads, Mona’s Eyes is something different.” Not everyone appreciated it, however. A reviewer in Britain’s Guardian newspaper sniffed “an undeniable strain of sentimentalism runs throughout” the book and its prose. Poetry Schlesser, the tousle-haired son of a writer, is about to publish a follow up of sorts called the The Gardener’s Cat, which focuses on the healing power of poetry. “I’ve been reading (poetry) since I was 12 and I make a point of reading at least one poem a day. It’s excellent for your well-being,” he said.

For a man more used to university lecture halls or the dry world of academic publishing, becoming a literary phenomenon, particularly in the US, was unexpected. “I was very surprised the book achieved such success in France and abroad. “The US is an incredibly tough market since Americans read English-language authors. It goes without saying I’m very happy and very proud, but also astonished,” Schlesser told AFP in an interview in Paris to promote his next work. The English translation of Mona’s Eyes peaked at number four in The