2 Van cats to join int’l cat beauty contest

VAN – Demirören News Agency

Two Van cats, named “Su” and “Başak,” have been nominated for the Istanbul International Cat Beauty Contest, which will be held between Oct. 31 and Nov. 3. The contest will host 200 cats.

Two of the cats from the Van Cat Research and Application Center of the Yüzüncü Yıl University in the eastern province of Van will attend the competition.

The director of the center, Prof. Dr. Abdullah Kaya, said that the competition will be held for the seventh time and is organized jointly by the Turkey Cat Federation and Happy Cat Association.

“Two cats have been nominated from Van. It will be a competition which includes all kinds of concepts such as training, hairdressing and nutrition of cats…Hopefully, one of our Van cats will come first in this contest,” said Kaya.

Van cats are relatively large, have a chalky white coat, sometimes with ruddy coloration on the head and hindquarters, and have blue or amber eyes or one eye of each color. The variety has been referred to as “the swimming cat” and has been observed swimming in Lake Van.

In 1992, the Van Cat Research and Application Center was founded to protect this rare species from extinction, providing them with comfortable living spaces and health services.