“I’ve had to learn.”
This is Rifki — a very regal cat who lives in Turkey.
Rifki’s thick, lustrous mane and steely gaze makes him an unmissable figure for any and all people passing by. But evidently, he’s not satisfied with that sort of attention alone.
Not long after moving into the apartment where she now lives, Aynuse Ceylan became well acquainted with Rifki.
While about to head out to work one morning, she found him sitting on her car.
Rather than move on when Ceylan tried to shoo him away, however, Rifki seemed to take offense at the very notion.
“He’s fearless,” Ceylan told The Dodo.
That first morning, Ceylan had to ask her building’s security guard to move Rifki — but this wouldn’t be her last run-in with the cat. Not by a long shot.
For whatever reason, Rifki decided that, going forward, his morning hangout spot would be atop Ceylan’s automobile — whether she likes it or not.
“He is obsessed with my car,” Ceylan said. “He believes it’s his.”
And Rifki does not take it well when Ceylan tries to reclaim what’s rightfully hers in order to drive it: “He uses serious violence. He’s a psychopath.”
Here’s a little montage of what’s become Ceylan and Rifki’s morning routine, with Ceylan repeating the same phrase (in Turkish): “I’m late!”
“We experience this every day,” Ceylan said. “I’ve had to learn.”
Ceylan has learned to cope with the cat who’s consistently sitting on her car, constantly making her late. But Rafki didn’t stop there.
He actually figured which apartment was hers, too.
Now, Ceylan has to deal with Rifki on both her car and at her doorstep.
“When his belly is empty, he finds my house in the building and meows at my door,” Ceylan said, adding with a tinge of disbelief that things have come this far: “And I feed him!”
Fortunately, Rifki appears to be a healthy, cared-for cat: “He has a home [someplace], but he doesn’t stay there,” Ceylan said.
Even after her gestures of kindness, Rifki will appear the next morning on Ceylan’s car, ready to defend “his property” with claws. But despite all the trouble Rifki gives her, Ceylan is still an animal lover, through and through.
Is Ceylan frustrated by the daily delay caused to her each morning by Rifki? Of course she is. But she’s also learned to enjoy his adorable intrusiveness.
“I’ve accepted Rifki in his psychotic state,” she said. “It’s no longer a problem. He’s a free spirit.”
