As soon as you buy a ticket to the next destination, the place you are in acquires the flavor of a reminiscence... That's what happened to Varanasi after I recently purchased a ticket from Delhi to Tbilisi, Georgia...
Subscribe to boost my newly founded subreddit! Once it's big enough, I'll announce Hive photo contests there to onboard people to Hive! This:
https://www.reddit.com/r/StreetCatsOfTheWorld/
I am still here, in India, but feel like it's already slightly in the past - the past, I will miss one day. And one of the main things I will miss is the "zoo", which you can enjoy daily on the Varanasi streets.
Let's start with the most fashionable creatures.
I don't know why Varanasi goats often wear sweaters,
whether this is because they just look fancier or bring more milk when they feel warmer...
But the fact is that goats in Varanasi often look more fashionable than other animals.
Another advantage of clothing on goats - you can easily recognize a goat you've already seen: a goat's coloring is harder to remember than the color and design of the sweater it wears.
For example, this goat in a burgundy sweater is often seen at the ghats, and is known to be a skillful thief. She tries to steal from chilling people and vendors.
When you arrive in Varanasi, you call these animals just "a goat" or "a sheep" but soon you realize: these are not just general "goats" and "sheep", but characters, each well-known by local people - like the goat in the burgundy sweater, or this sheep:
It is a disabled sheep with crooked forelegs (probably, birth trauma). It might be a stray. This creature is always at the ghat, and often hobbles in search of dropped food at the stairs, and is often surrounded by puppies who love her warm wool and sometimes eat her shit - I don't know why.
The streets of Varanasi are home to many stray dogs and their puppies.
Some of them get support from locals like those in the image above and others live in dusty corners and sometimes look doomed to die.
That's the perfect representation of old Varanasi's lanes, with doggies sleeping here and there.
They sleep most of the time. I guess they just wait for someone to feed them + after 8 pm, the lanes are less crowded, and that's the time when dogs are more active. They never attack people but can fight against each other for the territory.
Cows are cool, but I prefer buffaloes. Along with donkeys (who are absent in Varanasi), buffies are my favorite hoofed critters.
They don't roam freely in Varanasi but you can often see them hanging out at the ghats, with the owner nearby.
This review would not be complete without the little bastards, known as macaques.
They search the old town for food - the street I stay on isn't an exception (the orange sign in the background belongs to my guesthouse), and they also try to sneak into my window.
This is a view from my room, by the way:
Always in search of opportunities!
Are there cats in Varanasi? Yes, but the cat is a rare beast here, who doesn't trust anyone. They prefer the darker time and quite quickly disappear - if you aren't prepared to photograph them, they'll run away faster than you can take your camera out of your bag.
Hard life in Varanasi for cats. But why?
It's because they are defenseless - even peaceful Varanasi dogs can jump at your if you are mean, and moreover they might attack you - potentially - as a pack if they feel you are too unfair to them.
Cows are huge and dangerous in the narrow lanes - if one gets panicked and you are on the way... Secondly, sacred cows are respected in the old Varanasi - here, you see people touch them and then touch their foreheads, to get blessed.
Goats can butt, especially if you are an annoying child. Monkeys can do anything to a mean kid - including biting.
As for adults, we are safe, but you better not cross some red lines - animals can pay back.
But not cats.
When I see one and call it, it thinks I want to offend - I can read it in their eyes.
Today, I was super lucky - a female cat sneaked into the guesthouse and just came to my room's doorstep... It was a true blessing - I told you, you hardly can see them, and suddenly one comes to my doorstep...
I managed to treat her with milk - despite the fact that she was afraid of me and ready to run as soon as I moved too sharply.
After she felt full and left me, I poured some milk into a plate and placed it by the guesthouse entrance...
2-3 hours later, while I was coming back from a store, I noticed two cats by this plate... These two are the only cats I saw in the neighborhood, and they turned out to be friends - probably a couple...
I was taking my camera from backpack when children noticed the cats and started threatening them - jumping in their direction and swinging their legs. I told them to stop this several times, but they were too dull to understand anything, and didn't want to leave the cats in peace. As well as they didn't care I was upset myself.
Look at his pose! I never saw him in this pose of peace before - it's because he had milk (maybe for the first time since his childhood!) He felt satisfied and probably wanted, loved - until the bully kids came. And that paw, slightly stretched - it's because it was his reaction to a kid swinging his leg at him. š¢
His lady disappeared even faster - just ran away as soon as she saw the children - two boys and a girl, all around 10. Even the girl was aggressive towards the cats. No surprise Varanasi is full of mice - not only in streets but I spot them in restaurants and hotels - 10 years ago, when I visited Varanasi for the first time, I even found a mouse resting on my chest when I woke up in the morning - it was very cold December, that's why.
I was angry with the whole thing... I had managed to find a way to make friends with the cats, and the whole attempt was ruined by the mean, dull children. The adults around here and there? They had zero empathy.
Hope these cats will visit me again. Just want to show them they have allies too.
The only species in Varanasi that doesn't shit in the middle of the street... and is oppressed.
š”
The photos were taken with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G and a Nikkor f/2.8D on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 in January and February 2026, in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.