I received the famous photo of Tombili, now a meme for cat lovers everywhere, by email from a Greek friend. He said, “This is the spirit of the Aegean, not just chilling but always ready to take on the world.” It was a photo of a chubby, white-bellied cat with one arm hugging the pavement as if he were imitating a man. The photo became an instant hit on social media, shared thousands of times with captions, comments and add-on images such as raki (the anise-scented traditional alcoholic beverage of Turkey) glasses, worry beads, teacups and backgammon sets.

Witty captions paired with the famous Tombili photo gave people smiles even in the most distressed times. For example, after Gezi Park protesters were brutally attacked by police and everyone was asking who gave the order, Tombili’s photos circulated on social media with the caption, “I gave the order.” It was a satirical and smooth way of handling Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan's having told cheering crowds, “I gave the order to the police.” Later, the "I gave the order" cat meme became a phenomenon in Turkey as several other harsh orders for crackdowns came in, and the public was not sure how to handle them. Hence, Tombili’s rowdy pose became one of the most potent mediums for dark satire in Turkey. After all, who can dismiss a cat with such a carefree pose?

The rowdy cat craze went global when 9gag (an online platform and social media website) posted Tombili’s unique resting pose. Tombili was known in the Ziverbey neighborhood of Istanbul to be a one-of-a-kind cat who was almost like a man. Unlike many other street cats who enjoy being cuddled and petted, Tombili had a reputation for being a recluse. People loved him and said that they appreciated his nonconformist attitude. One resident told Al-Monitor that during a visit to the neighborhood in the summer of 2015, "In a world where so many are competing to cheer and clap a political leader [Erdogan], it is good to see a cat who never gives a damn.” It was this carefree spirit not matching his cuddly appearance that made Tombili world famous.

Indeed, even cats are politicized in Turkey. Several incidents in recent history have been rewritten through cats. For example, during the March 2014 local elections there were abrupt power shortages during the vote-counting process in cities where the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was facing stiff competition. Then-Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz told the media that a cat had caused a short circuit that shut down a power distribution unit. His explanation generated dozens of cat memes on social media where Tombili’s image resurfaced as the leader of the cat mafia planning to attack power stations. Since then, whenever there is something that cannot be explained, the immediate common response has become "Cats must be the culprit."