Cats can become a special part of our lives, even when they don’t belong to us. Many communities are filled with stray cats, who have no owners but manage to survive thanks to the kindness of strangers who make it a habit of caring for them, providing food and shelter.
Istanbul in particular is notable, not just for the sheer number of stray cats but by how ingrained they are into every day life—so much so that they got their own documentary film, Kedi.
Of all the stray cats roaming the Turkish city, one managed to stand out with her carefree attitude… and the city ensured that she would be remembered for years to come.
A street cat named Tombili—a common Turkish nickname for chubby pets—was always a favorite of the locals. With her hefty figure and habit of leaning on the sidewalk in a very relaxed pose, Tombili was a cat who seemed to have it all figured out.
She got even more famous when photos of her iconic pose made it online. There’s just something so relatable about this cat.
Tombili remained a favorite: people would often visit her at her regular spot on the sidewalk in the district of Kadıköy, where she would be lounging around without a care in the world.
She had a good life… but sadly, Tombili died on August 1, 2016.
Most stray cats would be forgotten about, but because Tombili was such a fixture of the community, the citizens of Istanbul decided to honor her legacy as an icon of the Turkish stray cat world in a big way:
