Hero of the day: man saved a cat using an umbrella

In one of Istanbul’s districts, local residents carried out an unusual rescue operation that kept the whole neighborhood on edge. A cat named Kara Bela ended up on the outside of the window of an apartment on the seventh floor and could have fallen at any moment. The animal was saved thanks to the ingenuity of local vendors, who used a large umbrella from an ice cream cart.

The incident took place in the evening in the Kanarya neighborhood of the Küçükçekmece district. According to eyewitnesses, the cat’s owner left home on business and accidentally left the window open. The animal got outside and began moving along the dangerous area by the window at a great height.

The alarm was first raised by local entrepreneur Hamza Ayaz. Seeing that the cat could fall at any second, he remembered the large umbrella that is usually used to protect an ice cream freezer from the sun. The man quickly took it outside and, together with neighbors, began waiting for the animal to fall.

According to eyewitnesses, the tense wait lasted for about half an hour. During that time, the cat tried several times to make its way to a safe place, but stopped each time. Dozens of neighborhood residents watched what was happening, many of them coming to the windows and balconies.

When Kara Bela eventually fell, the umbrella was already in the hands of another local resident, Nezir Güleç. Seeing the falling cat, the man managed to open the umbrella and position it beneath the trajectory of the fall. The fabric softened the impact, which helped the animal avoid serious injuries.

After the successful rescue, the people gathered on the street greeted Nezir Güleç with applause. Surveillance cameras at a nearby shop recorded the entire operation from start to finish.

“We were very worried. It felt as if our hearts were about to jump out of our chests. When the cat jumped, Nezir managed to catch it with the umbrella. It’s all right now,” Hamza Ayaz told journalists.

The rescuer himself noted that together with his neighbors he watched the cat for almost thirty minutes without taking his eyes off the window. When the animal finally fell, every second counted.

The story resonated widely on Turkish social media not only because of its happy ending, but also thanks to the district residents’ special attitude toward stray and domestic animals. According to Hamza Ayaz, Kanarya has long been considered one of the most cat-friendly neighborhoods in Istanbul.

“Not a single cat here will go hungry. People often buy food and milk for the animals. I used to sell almost no cat food, and now I sell about 100 kilograms a month,” the entrepreneur said.

Kara Bela the cat was not injured in the incident. The unusual rescue operation became yet another example of how far people are willing to go to help their four-legged neighbors.