Instagram Cat With One Eye Blue, One Eye Green Brings Rare Breed to Mainstream

Instagram Cat With One Eye Blue, One Eye Green Brings Rare Breed to Mainstream
Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)
Petr Svab
4/25/2016
Updated:
10/5/2018

One the first sight, Aloş may seem like a silly Photoshop prank. His pictures show a furry snow white cat with azure blue right eye and jade green left eye. But this is no joke.

Aloş is a van cat.

Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)
Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)

Van cats are a breed specific to the region of Lake Van in eastern Turkey. A decade ago they were threatened with extinction, according to al-monitor.com. Now there are about thousand of them in Turkey.

Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)
Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)

Van cats have been highly prized by Armenians, who used to live in the area. Ideally, they should be pure white with one eye blue and one eye amber green. It is also said the cats have a special aptitude for swimming.

Babannemle konuşuyor He is talking to my grandmother

A video posted by Aloş (@kedialos) on Apr 23, 2016 at 4:57am PDT

In December 2015 a van cat owner from Bursa, Turkey, started to upload photos and videos of Aloş. By now his Instagram account has almost 16,000 followers.

Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)
Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)

What do you think about Aloş?

Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)
Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)
Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)
Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)
Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)
Aloş the van cat. (Courtesy of kedialos)