Cat Lady in Istanbul – Part 5

It’s snowing today in Istanbul…

but that didn’t stop Cat Lady continues her sightseeing.

She visited Chora Church this morning…

Cat Lady in Istanbul – Part 4

Another day in Istanbul for Cat Lady…

Today, she spent most of her time in the Bazaar district. And in the Zincirli Han (one of the oldest part of the Bazaar)…

she met him…

Cat Lady found it fascinating that the cats in here just ‘blend in’ the daily lives of the local Turkish people. People go about their business with the cats being around, and they treat them as part of the city. No one seems to be bothered, and in fact, most of them seems to enjoy having them around.

In the ‘jewellery section’ of the bazaar…

You see? That’s what we are talking about! Cats are just there, hanging out, looking at jewellery. Local people just trend them as part of them. I mean, you as a human are not surprise to see another human walking around in the shopping centre, why are you surprised to see a cat? That’s the kind of attitude they have in Istanbul and all of us in Maow Care likes that A LOT!

In the ‘book section’ of the Bazaar…

You can see local people are happy to socialise with the cats…

Then just outside a tea house…(too bad that you guys can’t see the lit menu of the tea house…)

We all know Ireland is not a particularly ‘cat-oriented’ country.

After seeing the photo reports from Cat Lady in Istanbul, I am so jealous of the cats there! I do see the situation in Ireland has been improving since we moved here 4 years ago, but I do hope cats will be more accepted in Ireland one day. Hey! We just mind our own businesses most of the time, we help you to keep away rodents, we are great company too! What do you think? Leave us a comment on why you love cats so much? We would love to hear from you.

P.S. I promise I will send you loads of cat love if you leave a comment, ok?

Cat Lady in Istanbul – Part 3

Hi everyone,

Cat Lady continues to send us photo report today on the local cat situation in Istanbul.

This morning, Cat Lady went to the Grand Bazaar area.

And in the part where they sell knitting supplies…

Cat Lady met…

she is such a lucky cat! She seems to have a very lovely human who keeps kissing her head all the time while they watch the knitting shop together.

Just in the same knitting Han, Cat Lady met another guy…

Then later this evening, when Cat Lady was out to eat dinner, she ran into her…

…what fascinates Cat Lady is that, this little girl seems to be having a really peaceful life even in the middle of the tramway station!

In fact, she is getting ready for a nap!

After dinner, on the way back to the hotel, Cat Lady ran into a few more cats who work in shops…

Oh no, this little guy doesn’t live in the bus stop, he works in the shop just happens to be next to the bus stop. His human has put down water for him just now.

Just a few shops down the road, another shop cat is just standing at the door, waiting for customers to come…

Want to see more Istanbul cats? Check this space! Cat Lady will send in more photo updates from Istanbul (aka Catland) tomorrow!

Cat Lady in Istanbul – Part 2

Hey human!

More photo updates from Cat Lady in Istanbul (aka Catland)…

This morning, Cat Lady woke up and looked out the window from her hotel room…

You can’t see it? Ok, I will zoom in for you, I know your human eyes are not as sharp as ours…

Cat Lady is guessing they are mother and kitten…

And the funny thing is, the Mum kept looking at Cat Lady from across the road when Cat Lady called her.

After a while, she decided to go look for breakfast for herself and kitten, and that’s what happened…

Yep, so finally Mum jumped into the human house where some lovely human are there to give her food. In fact, we are thinking it might also be possible that she lives in that apartment and she only moves down to the terrace to have more private time for her and her kittens…um, we don’t know…

Cat Lady did promise if she sees more action tomorrow on the roof when she wakes up, she will definitely report to us.

And this cat family is not the only cats she met today! Istanbul is really a ‘Catland’! There are cats everywhere and people seems to like having them around, it’s definitely more of a ‘cat country’ than a ‘dog country’ there!

So after breakfast, Cat Lady started her first day of sightseeing. Within 5 minutes of walking outside her hotel, there you go again…

Then Cat Lady turned around, and there it was another one…

You can’t see it? Let’s get closer…

Oh, there was not one, but two!

They are probably friends these two…

Cat Lady looked more carefully and realised…

What a funny guy, he is not interested in chasing birds around him AT ALL!

So Cat Lady walked for another few minutes to get into the Tourist Office and there you have it again…

Oh, who is ‘Cat Mum 2′? I can’t believe I have never told you guys about Cat Mum 2!!

When I was only a kitten (click here to see posts about me when I was a kitten), I lived with both Cat Lady and Cat Lady’s young sister. I like to call them Cat Mum 1 and Cat Mum 2. I am such a lucky guy to have two cat mums to love me.

Anyway, moving on…

So Cat Lady and Cat Mum 2 arrived Hagia Sophia to do their first sightseeing…

You are not going to believe it, but even inside a sightseeing place, there are cats around!

You might wonder what’s the cat shape light is? Its a cat head!

Why is the cat head got lit up? Haha, the cat was doing ‘feline facial’ with the monument’s light!

After Hagia Sophia, Cat Lady and Cat Mum 2 went on to Taksim shopping area and on the way, there are just cats after cats they met!

Here is one…

then another…she works in a Fish Monger…(another wonderful job I want to have in future lives…)

We know it’s a ‘she’ because the Fishmonger was very proud of her and told us about her…

and another cat lives with the fresh fruit vendor…

Not only the fact that there are cats everywhere telling us that people there in Istanbul care about cats a great deal. Here are other proofs:

Yes, they put a cat on the packaging of a radiator to market the radiator! Great idea! I mean, if a cat approves it, it must be a wonderful radiator! We cat kind know all about radiator, I tell ya!

Another proof came to the time when Cat Lady and Cat Mum 2 finished the day of sightseeing, they were tired and was on the way back to the hotel. And there you have it, in the middle of Taksim square – the most important square in Istanbul…

Remember whoever said that? ‘Cats were worshipped thousands of years ago and…they never forget that.’

Well, it looks like at least in this part of the world, the human seems to remember very well too. I am pleased.

Cat Lady in Istanbul (aka Catland)

Hi everyone! We are back!

I know I know! We said we were going to be back after New Year, but it has been mad busy at Maow Care even after New Year, so we haven’t been able to manage to come back to you all until now.

And no, we are not going back to ‘normal schedule’ yet, because this week we have many surprise posts for you! We are not going back to ‘normal fixed feature until next week.

So what’s this ‘surprise post’ about?

Cat Lady left us behind!

She is here…

I was quite angry initially as I hate when my human going away from me, but after she sent me photo update, I thought it’s very kind of her to think of our feline kind even during her holiday, so I forgive her.

It turns out there are many cats in Istanbul and the local people seems to be quite fond of them! There are cats everywhere!

Don’t know what I put up this photo?

Well, here we go again…

This cat has such a lovely job!

I mean, I quite enjoy being the boss of Maow Care, but if I can choose next life , I wouldn’t mind to be a Food vendor cat, you know what I mean? Oh wait, I still technically have another 8 lives to run Maow Care…ok, I mean, when I have another 9 lives next time…does that make sense? Never mind…

So I have forgiven Cat Lady, we cat always always have to forget our human, don’t we? It’s so hard to be cats…

Maowry Catsmas!

As you can imagine, we are very very busy at Maow Care for the clawliday season, we are going to take a break from this blog during this period of time. We will be back on the first week of January! See you in the New Year!

Cats in another City

The standard introduction to this feature (you can skip this if you already know what it is about):

Cat Lady likes to take picture of cats when she is out and about doing her cat sitting jobs. I will upload her photos here every Friday. If it happens to be your cat, you can contact us and we will have a gift voucher for you, so that you can try out our fabulous service.

However, I don’t think this cat would come forward as he/she lives in Montreal, Canada…

Small print again:

If it is your cat, please contact us, you will win a gift voucher from Maow Care as long as you can provide proof that this is your cat.

 

Maowologue

No word is needed for today’s Maowologue…

Baby Cat

 

Today, I am going to introduce you to one of our cat-stomers.

Please say maow to Fernando who lives in Blackrock!

Fernando is a very handsome boy. He is a very gentle and sweet person. There are two things he likes most – watch MTV channel and being held like a human baby on the shoulder.

So that’s what Cat Lady does when she sits Fernando. Watch MTV with him and hold him like a baby walking around the house.

At Maow Care, we know every cat is different and special. Therefore, we do follow cats-tomers individual instruction to the greatest details. That’s the kind of purrsonalised service that attracts our catstomers.

 

Life as a Cat Sitter series: Cat business in Montreal Part 2

Last week, I have shown you the cat exclusive grooming salon in Montreal. This week, we are going to visit a luxury Cats and Dogs city retreat together, the Muzo Hotel.

Muzo Hotel is not a typical ‘kennel’ or ‘cattery’. To me, it is a REAL hotel run to human standard, just that it’s not for human…if that makes sense. I have a long chat with the owner Lindy who shared all the ins and outs of the ‘animal hotel’ business. Now, let’s have a look at the hotel itself.

Look at their lovely ‘check-in lobby’…

(Disclaimer: I didn’t take the above two lobby photos, I got it online somewhere, if you are the owner of the photos and if you have a problem of me putting it up here, please be in touch.)

Here is their ‘spa’ session where you get all your grooming done…

I didn’t take a good picture of the ‘dog’ part of the hotel as they were taking a nap during the time I visited. The staff has dimmed the light so that dogs can sleep better, there was even soft music on the background! I know! Can you believe this? I wanted to be staying there myself even I am a human!

I have only managed to take some photos on the ‘cat’ part of the hotel. Unfortunately, I visited the hotel in October which is the low season, so there was only one ‘guest’ in the cat part of the hotel.

Just look at how lovely are these ‘cat rooms’!

I know some ‘cat hotels’ provide access to a restricted outdoor area, but I suppose it is a bit more difficult in the case of Montreal because of the cold temperature in winter. So to compensate that, Lindy uses a ‘cat buggy’ to ‘walk the cat’ every day so that they can get some fresh air and see the outdoor a little, each guest is entitled to their own walking time every day.

I think Muzo Hotel is a wonderful place and it should be the template for all the animal hotels in the future. With the advance in comfort, technology, business management in all area in human life, why is there so little in the management of ‘animal business’? I personally have a very strong opinion on this matter and believe that all animal-related businesses have to catch up to the modern business management level. Don’t get me wrong, I always find that people who works in animal businesses are one of the most loveliest people I have come across, but maybe since they are animal lovers and put their focus on animal welfare, quite often I notice they put the ‘management’ side of the business aside and lost their focus on finance management, accounting, marketing, corporate image, customer service, etc.

I believe animal business IS a business and the usual business management practice applies, so in case you haven’t already noticed, that’s how I am trying to run Maow Care myself! I do more or less the same thing like I would have done when I worked in my corporate jobs before. For things that you can see, I have corporate image, customer service quality control, PR, marketing, etc in place; and for things you can’t see, I have proper filing system, finance management, statistics, etc done up for future business development. The only difference between working for Maow Care and working for the corporates in my past life is, I am with my customer on a one-on-one basis, so I emphasize on retraining a personal touch while providing quality service. Of course, I can’t judge myself but I do indeed try my best to maintain the balance of being a ‘business’ and ‘animal loving auntie next door’. I hope I have achieved that. Leave a comment below if you have any opinion on the way I interact with you guys who are my customers, I would love to know how you feel about my way to run Maow Care

To me, Lindy at Muzo Hotel definitely is one of those animal businesses I have encountered who have achieved a great balance between being a ‘business’ and an ‘animal loving auntie’. I truly admire her business model and who knows? Maybe you are going to see Hotel de Maow showing up before you know?

Anyway, if you are reading this Lindy – merci beaucoup de ton accueil, je te souhaite tous sucess et a tres bientot! xoxox

 

Cat Lady