The newspaper vendor of Istanbul

People are kind to cats in Istanbul. I know this because a cat told me. She was sitting selling newspapers just off the Galata Bridge that spans the Golden Horn. It's a strategically located transport node where today ferry, metro, dolmus taxi and pedestrian flows converge much as ancient trade routes converged on Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul itself. It is a prized pitch by any cat's standards. I say selling newspapers - they are actually free editions of a city paper but any donations of crumbled cat food are happily accepted as payment in kind. When I reached down to stroke my newspaper vendor, she cocked one calico ear towards me and accepted her homage with long-suffering good grace. Thousands of commuters, shoppers, tourists, traders, fishermen, students, children pass her station every day and yet her trust in the open, extended human hand is undiminished. That must be one of the finest accolades that any city can earn. Now take your newspaper and bring me some simit on the way home.