International Cat Day

Every year on August the 8th International Cat Day is celebrated. These beloved and household and backyard companions are one of our most common and ancient pets. They provide us with so many benefits to our health and wellbeing that its only right we should pay them back in some small way.

Equally, the wild cats (whether a big cat like a Lion or Cheetah, or a small delicate Kodkod Cat) are important as an integral part of the natural world and its ‘balance of nature’. We surely need em!

The ‘holiday’ (hey, maybe it should be one!) was conceived and created by the animal rights organization ‘The International Fund for Animal Welfare‘ in 2002, in the hope that cat owners and fans wouldwide would begin to honour their fabulous furry friends. It is a day for us to raise awareness for cats (big and small, wild and domestic) and learn about ways to help and protect them.

In 2020 custodianship of International Cat Day passed to International Cat Care, a not-for-profit British organization that has been striving to improve the health and welfare of domestic cats worldwide since 1958.

As custodians, iCatCare has announced the theme for this year is ‘Cat friendly resources’. They teamed up with world-renowned animal artist and illustrator Lili Chin to design educational materials to help us humans make sure we’re providing cats with the essential resources they need to stay physically and mentally healthy in a cat friendly way.

Lili created some new feline faces to the initiative. The ambassador cats Domino and McTatters.

Domino represents pet cats that live in a more traditional home environment whilst McTatters represents the unowned cats that will vary in the way they live and interact with humans (if choosing to at all). You can grab your resources on the icatcare.org website

Peace and Love to all Cats (and Humans) everywhere!

References:

https://icatcare.org/international-cat-day/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cat_Day

Hashtags – #BeCatCurious & #InternationalCatDay