It shouldn’t be a surprise that cats have their own International Cat Day, which is today August 8th. Long before cats took over the Internet, they had reigned supreme around the world,  appearing in legends and lore, revered and feared since Antiquity. Cats were sacred to the ancient Egyptians and were buried with ritualistic honors after death. There is a cat mummy museum in Egypt and cat mummies can be found in museum collections around the world from Brooklyn to Budapest and London and beyond. Meanwhile Amsterdam has a celebrated museum devoted to cats.  

King Louis XV of France would invite cats into the royal household with the introduction of Général, a large black cat who is immortalized in an 18th century painting by Jean-Baptiste Oudry. The king was particularly fond of Angora cats — one of the most outgoing of cat breeds — and his rather large white Angora cat, Brillant, had its own red cushion installed on the fireplace in the Council Cabinet to watch and listen to the king and his ministers debate the politics of the kingdom. Swiss artist Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, a key figure in the artistic scene in Montmartre in Paris at the end of the 19th century and best known for his poster for the Black Cat Cabaret, was an unabashed cat person. He fed hordes of neighborhood cats and his home, christened the Cat’s Cottage, was found on Montmartre’s famed rue Caulaincourt. 

And with International Cat Day comes the CatVideoFest, a joyful celebration of cat videos that have been compiled from hours of submissions and videos curated from the Internet. And during the month of August the cat videos that everyone loves can be seen on the silver screen in participating movie theaters around the United States, and now New Zealand and Australia. A portion of the proceeds are donated to local cat charities and shelters. It is a cat-charitable event and brings together communities in movie theaters as the big screen provides a better view than your tiny smart phone screen. The 75-minute reel is also fun for the entire family or a group of friends. CatVideoFest has been seen in over 250 theaters in the United States and Canada, as well as over 100 theaters in Europe.

« We are committed to raising awareness and money for cats in need around the world. A percentage of the proceeds from each event goes to local animal shelters and/or animal welfare organizations. Since 2019, over $150,000 has been raised for local shelters in addition to adoptions, fostering, volunteer sign-ups and much more at shows, » explains CatVideoFest in its mission statement on its website. 

Or you might want to take a course in cat care with the International Cat Care charity which has been advancing the welfare of cats since 1958 when it was founded in the United Kingdom by cat lover and breeder Joan Judd to work to improve the care of cats.  So Happy Caturday, the message posted intermittently on Saturdays on X by Larry, a rescue cat who resides at 10 Downing Street, the home of the prime minister of Great Britain. Larry, who is 18-years old, has lived there through six prime ministers and two monarchs. ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette

https://www.catvideofest.com/

https://icatcare.org/