Hundreds of people and their cats filled the streets of Cambridgeport Saturday afternoon for the first annual Cambridge Cat Tour, a city-backed event that drew far more attendees than organizers expected.
In honor of Meet Your Neighbor Month in September, Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui collaborated with a local artist to bring together cat enthusiasts from Cambridge and beyond. The tour was originally scheduled for September 26 but was moved to October 3 because of the nor’easter last weekend.
Credit: Ethan Pott
The tour — a parade-style walk through Cambridgeport, with more than a dozen stops — invited people to gather and see local cats. Each cat owner could submit their cat’s name, details, address and a short message to be featured in the walk. All gatherers got a virtual map detailing each stop.
Siddiqui led a crowd of hundreds through the streets – which police had blocked off for safety – stopping at each house on the route to peek at the cats inside as owners lifted their cats up to the window, held them on the porch or had them outside for visitors to pet. Some houses had signs announcing the cats’ names. Others had fun facts and drawings. People clapped and cheered when each cat was introduced.
“It’s good to get out to see folks and get some festivity going on in the town,” said John Haynor, cat parent to Blake and Pepper. “I’m a little overwhelmed. I did not realize it was going to be this many people. But it’s good.”
Attendees were welcome to dress up in cat-themed attire and hold signs like “CATabridgian” and “show us your cats” for the cat owners to see. Some people brought their feline companions in backpacks, in strollers and on leashes. A few cat-friendly dogs even joined the tour.
Mariah Mitchell traveled from Revere to do the cat tour with her kitty, Miso, who looked out at passersby from the cat bubble backpack Mitchell wore, his first experience doing so.
“I wanted him to make friends,” Mitchell said. “He seems like he wants to make friends. So I was like, ‘I can bring you to make friends with other kitties.’”
Chloe Hinrichs and Ramsey Hilton of Watertown pushed their Siamese cat, Andrew “Andy,” through the crowd in a stroller as people stopped to say hello.
Asked why they brought Andy on the tour, Hinrichs said, “He’s an adventure kitty. He goes kayaking. He goes camping. He goes hiking. So we’re like, ‘well, why can’t he go on a cat stroll?’”
After the walk ended, everyone was invited to the Meowfest “After-purrty” for free pizza and tacos, a storytelling booth, a cat fashion show, a cat clothing swap, cat-themed crafts and activities, and the Altar of the Divine Feline, where people were welcome to make imaginative offerings.
Meowfest was the brainchild of Rayna Jhaveri, an artist and cat lover who has lived in Cambridge for 13 years. A few months ago, she threw a neighborhood birthday party for her cat Bambi and invited the mayor. Siddiqui told Jhaveri she was planning a Cat Tour for September and invited her to collaborate.
“The inspiration behind this was bringing people out,” Jhaveri said. “After COVID, we haven’t really learned how to be together again. I think events like these are opportunities outside of going to restaurants and bars and things. We’re going from consumer economy to community economy.”
Siddiqui said her idea for the cat walk was exactly that: to gather people in a free, accessible and lighthearted way, something she feels like has been important in post-pandemic Cambridge.
“I was looking for a way to bring people together, and I had seen that cat tours were happening around the country,” Siddiqui said. “I had been planning this, and I knew it was something I wanted to do as I entered my third term.”
After the heavy turnout, the mayor said she hopes the tour can become an annual event.
“It’s nice to do something just purely fun that brings people together,” Siddiqui said. “This is a great way for people to meet each other, show their cats. You look at a cat and everyone is instantly happy.”
This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom program.
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