Cats Grieve Too

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 4 February 2018)


'Duman' debunks the old saw about cold-hearted cats.

In Antalya, high school graduate Gamze Yılbaş (17) was doing
an internship at a hospital last summer.  Out with her friends one
night, Gamze died when the car she was in crashed.  The young
girl's cat 'Duman' had been at her door for six months, grieving for
her return.

Duman scratches at the door to Gamze's room and once inside
smells her clothes and sleeps on her bed.  Gamze's mother Döndü
Bora, who herself grieves for her lost child, is sad for Duman, too.
"Duman is a remembrance of our daughter.  Duman has shed its
hair and lost weight longing for Gamze."

Last July, Gamze and her friend Yaren Su Şaylı (18) were in a
car driven by İlayda Kılıç when the car went out of control on
Sakıp Sabanca Boulevard, hit an advertisement panel and then
the iron wall in the middle of the road.  Gamze was thrown from
the car's back seat onto the roadway and died there.

Gamze's family filed a criminal complaint against the driver, Ilyada
Kılıç, but in the ensuing 6 months, there has been no indictment.
Her mother added about Duman: "Duman is our memory of Gamze.
Duman is always in her room, looking for my daughter, sniffing
her clothes and sleeping on her bed."