Cat Fancy
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Cat fancy describes the
subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...
that surrounds
cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...
lovers and their
hobbies A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing other ...
involving the appreciation, promotion, showing, or
breeding Breeding is sexual reproduction that produces offspring, usually animals or plants. It can only occur between a male and a female animal or plant. Breeding may refer to: * Animal husbandry, through selected specimens such as dogs, horses, and rab ...
of cats. Animal fanciers of cats may refer to themselves as " cat people", "cat fanciers", or "cat lovers". The term "cat culture" has also been used, though is ambiguous.


Description

Cat fanciers often wear clothing that identifies the wearer as a cat person. Some of them use cat
pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...
s such as ''meowvalous'' for 'marvelous', and ''paw some'' for 'awesome', among many others. Cat terms such as "porrect" have been used in article titles such as CBS Sacramento's article about two cats living alone in a Silicon Valley studio. According to a 2013 article by ''
Psychology Today ''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. The publication began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The print magazine's reported circulation is 275,000 as of 2023. ...
'', self-identified cat people have more unusual and distinctive personality traits than dog people. The article also speculates that due to the sensitive nature of cats, some people of a similar nature would feel an affinity with cats.


Around the world

In
Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...
, there is a cat festival called CatCon Worldwide. In 2018, the POP Cats Convention was held in
Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
. There is a cat-themed cruise in the US (operating out of both Florida and Alaska), named Meow Meow Cruise, on which cat lovers can meet people with the same interest and have cat-themed parties. In Morocco, cats are an inherent part of the country's culture. A 2018 article by ''
Morocco World News ''Morocco World News'' (MWN) is an English language e-newspaper with its headquarters in Rabat and Washington, D.C. It publishes news about Morocco and MENA region on a wide range of topics, including politics, economics, international relations, ...
'' suggested that people visiting there could think that the Moroccan person-to-cat ratio is fairly close to 1:1. Many Moroccans are said to love cats, and around the cities are piles of food and water trays left for the cats. ''Cat Nation'', a film by Tim Delmastro about cat fancy in Japan, features Chris Broad, a British YouTube personality. Broad made his way across the country where he documented the numerous strange and interesting cat-centric activities, including cat bars, cat temples, cat islands, and cat cafés. Singapore has many cat lovers, cat cafés, and a cat museum. It had its first cat festival in 2018.


Online

Cat subculture has transferred to and been amplified by the Internet, where it now flourishes. Cats, especially in the form of
LOLcat A lolcat (pronounced ), or LOLcat, is an image macro of one or more cats. Lolcat images' Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and intentionally grammatically incorrect text is known as lolspeak. Lolcat is a Compound (linguistics), compound word of the ...
s, have long been a staple of
Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...
pictures. Cat fans often engage in a " Caturday" pastime (which originated on
4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, mu ...
) of posting cat pictures on social media on Saturdays. There are numerous websites devoted to cats, such as '' The Catnip Times'' and ''
The Purrington Post Images and videos of Cat, domestic cats make up some of the most viewed content on the World Wide Web. ''Thought Catalog'' has described cats as the "unofficial mascot of the Internet". The subject attracted the attention of various scholars an ...
''. There are many online cat-themed games, such as '' Cat-Opoly'' which is based on the board game ''
Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...
''; players buy cats instead of properties.''
OK! ''OK!'' is a British weekly magazine that primarily specialises in royal and celebrity news. Originally launched as a monthly magazine, its first issue was published in April 1993. In September 2004, ''OK''! launched in Australia as a monthly ...
'', January 2, 2018
"Cat Monopoly is now a thing – and it's the perfect board game for animal lovers}
by Miranda Knox


See also

* * * * * *


Notes


References

{{reflist Cat fancy Cats in popular culture