The highland of Anatolia, Turkey, is the home land of the famous Kangal Dog. The dog takes its name from the town of Kangal, east central Turkey located in the province of Sivas or the ancient city Sebastia.
The land mass lies at an elevation of 4,193 feet (1,278 m) in the broad valley of the Kizilirmak ( Halys) river. The Kangal Dog bears the characteristics of the harsh climate of the area.
Van cat is a unique cat. It is generally assumed that geographic isolation is responsible for the preservation of this creature. The most notable feature of the area of Eastern Turkish known as Eastern Anatolia is Lake Van, bounded as it is by the mountains of Suphan in the north, and Nemrut to the west. Biblical Mount Ararat is some 100 miles to the north-east. The area around Van is mountainous and suffers extremes of temperature to which the Turkish Cat has fully adapted, shedding its long hair for a shorter cooler coat in the summer, and with tufts of hair between its pads to protect its paws from the cold in the winter. The dominance of this region by Lake Van lends credence to the reputation bestowed on the cats of being swimming cats. This is not to suggest that all Turkish Van Cats like to swim, but many will do so in shallow warm water, and they love to play with running water too.
The Turkish Angora Cat breed is known for their beautiful, usually long white, fur. There seems to be sufficient physical and behavioral characteristics to argue that Turkish Angora Cat is related to Turkish Van Cat. Angora Cat eyes colors come in blue, amber, or green-or a combination, sometimes with one eye one color and the other eye another color. The breed is known to be comfortable with water such as its distant cousin Van Cat. Most people think of the Turkish Angora as a white cat, it in fact comes in all colors: chocolate, lilac, cinnamon, fawn, and the 'pointed' colors . You can find Turkish Angoras in black, blue, red, cream, silver, smoke.
Both breeds Angora and Van Cats are considered as a national treasure in Turkey.
