We all love cats, I mean who doesn’t want to pet and love a cat when they instantly see them? Cats all have their own silly personalities. Some cats love us and want all the attention in the world and then there are other kitties who want nothing to do with us. Either way, Jill really loves cats! Basically, everyone knows Jill as the cat gal. She doesn’t hoard them or anything, she just likes the cuteness. Every cat we see on our travels, Jill must say Hi!! After a while I started taking photos of her greeting her feline friends and it has kind of become a thing. We always do our research on new locations to see if there are any cat attractions. If not, we usually see them roaming around and now I make Jill take photos with them!!!
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Minnow and Biscuit are our two kitties, both rescues. Jill rescued Minnow before I was even in the picture, she is her baby! When Jill first got her, she was obsessed with playing in the bath tub like a little fish, hence the name…Minnow. After we moved in together, we decided it would be nice to adopt a second cat for Minnow, so she wouldn’t be so lonely. I always wanted a gray cat, but somehow we ended up with Biscuit (originally named Meow). Looking at his profile he was the perfect fit for us. He ended up at the humane society in bad shape. It was so bad, they thought he was hit by a car. Once they cleaned him up, it was determined that he in fact was suffering from some sort of virus, it took him 6 months to recover. When we brought him home, he was so relaxed that he wouldn’t stop kneading everything he touched. For some reason cat’s kneading is also known as making biscuits, so that is where he got his name! We love them both!
Kennedy Park aka Kitty Park, Miraflores, Lima, Peru
Kennedy Park (Kitty Park), is kind of where it all began. We were in Miraflores which is an upscale area in Lima. We were visiting a Pre-Inca Ruin and the tour guide mentioned something about a cat park. Did we hear that right, “Cat Park?” We quickly asked the guide if he really meant a cat park, and sure enough, it was true. We arrived at Kitty Park and saw cats everywhere, Jill was in Heaven! I read that there are about 100 cats here give or take, and they are all cared for by a group that spays, feeds, and takes care of them all. For the most part they were all in good health, a few had bandages and medicine on wounds, but it is good to know they are cared for. We spent close to a week in Lima, I believe we stopped here at least three times. The cats were all friendly and enjoyed pets and belly rubs. It was funny, you could look into the bushes and see 5-10 curled up taking a cat nap. They were literally everywhere, on benches, people’s laps, tree’s, trails, etc..
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Save a Gato, San Juan, Puerto Rico
This has got to be one of my favorite cat attractions/rescues to date! Save a Gato is a rescue organization in San Juan that traps, neuters, and releases cats in Old San Juan. I believe they also foster and adopt kitties out. But once the cats are taken care of at Save a Gato, they are released back to their colonies, more places need to do this!!
The best thing about the cats of Old San Juan is the location. You can walk outside the walls around the Forts along the coast and you will see cats everywhere along the trail, sunning on the rocks, in bushes, etc..it was quite fantastic! Cats love soaking up the sunshine by the beach just like we do I guess! If you come here, you are guaranteed to see cats. They all looked well taken care of and seemed to be friendly. Once you exit the trail and get back into Old San Juan, don’t worry, there are cats all around town.
Hemingway House, Key West, Florida
Home of the six-toed cats! That’s right, a visit to the Hemingway House is not only famous to view Ernest Hemingway’s belongings and works as a writer, but also to see the popular polydactyl (six-toed) kitty cats. His home lies within Key West, Florida on Whitehead St and is home to about 50 cats that sleep around both inside and outside the house.
The cats even have their own replica of the Hemingway House.
Apparently six toed cats were popular among sailors in the early 1900’s, for several reasons. They were considered good luck, the extra toe allowed for better grip while at sea and made them better mousers. Hemingway received a six toed cat from a sailor named Snow White and that is where it all began!
Now a days, you can tour the Hemingway House and visit the cats. During the day, you can catch them sleeping on the furniture, under tables, or outside relaxing in the shade. The grounds also includes a cemetery for the cats and there is a vet that takes care of them all!
Bonus - Crazy Cat guy in Key West, Florida
We were walking the Westin Pier in Key West and stumbled upon a crazy street performer. Ummm.. it was very odd, but it included cats jumping through hoops and performing acts. The strange part about it was the man. I looked up the street performer online and he’s very popular. Dominique and his flying house cats. He sets up at the pier right before sunset and sets up the stage for him and the cats. He was very weird yet entertaining and had a thick French accent, I think it was real? Either way, his cats were well trained, I mean we could never get Minnow or Biscuit to do any tricks. It’ really hard to explain, one of those things you have to see it to believe it.
So if you find yourself in Key West, head over to the Westin Pier before sunset to catch the show. With the sun setting in the background, it does make for great photos!
Cashnip Kitty, Tulsa, Ok
Jill found out about this one, I can’t remember if it was from a video online, but it was meant to be, because a few days after her discovery, we planned a road trip down to Tulsa, OK, home of Cashnip Kitty.
The story goes, there is a small business downtown and they have an office cat. For a few days, the employees would come to work and see a few dollar bills laying right by the door. This would be almost a daily occurrence and they finally found out that drunk people would walk by the business, see the cat in the window and play with it using a dollar bill. Eventually the dollar would fall into the office and the cat would claim victory over their money!!!! Since this occurred so often, the business made it into a thing and now they donate all the money to the local homeless shelter. 
Cats of Dubrovnik
There was not really a “cat attraction” in Dubrovnik, but the whole city seemed to be a playground for cats, they were everywhere! Dubrovnik seems to be the best place for cats, inside the walls, there are no cars, small alley ways, and plenty of fun places for kitties to explore. Around every corner we would see a kitty, especially in the evening times, there would be groups of them. All the cats were well taken care of. Apparently the restaurants leave out their leftover food at night for the cats, primarily fish. We would see piles of cat food in random locations. At one of the main bus stops, we saw a rough looking kitty, he’s been through a lot. It was great to see that no one forgot about him as he had food in the mornings. People in Croatia seem to love their cats. Plus the weather is always nice there!
Kotor, Montenegro and their Weird Cat Obsession
Doing our research prior to visiting Kotor, we read that they are obsessed with cats in this small medieval town. We were very much looking forward to visiting Kotor because of this reason. Apparently, back in the day, during time of plague, the cats would eat the rats that spread the horrible disease. Because of this, it is likely cats saved hundreds if not thousands of people, so they are basically worshiped in Kotor. There were cats everywhere, but not as many as we saw in Split and Dubrovnik, Croatia, not sure why? Smaller town and crowds perhaps.
There was a cat museum in Kotor, no way in hell we could pass that up, besides it was only a Euro (Montenegro uses Euro’s). Umm, it was not quite what I was expecting. I was expecting displays of cat toys, or famous cats from the area. In reality it was full of very odd paintings, postcards with cats, and photos of men during war with cats on their laps. I don’t think I would say this is a must do, but for a Euro it was fun.
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Cat Cafe's in Seoul, South Korea
We really enjoyed our time in Seoul, South Korea. Prior to visiting S. Korea for our first time we were well aware of cat cafe’s. Surprisingly we only ended up going to one, we did go to a puppy cafe as well which was cute, but this is about cats right? Not dogs! We’ve been to other cat cafe’s around the world, but the one in Seoul stood out and it was around the corner from where we stayed.
Here is how it works. You come in, take off your shoes and pay, usually drinks are included. Once you enter you can sit there and pet the kitties, play with them, or just take photos with them. It is funny being in a small space with 10-20 cats at one time. Some of them don’t want to be bothered by anyone while others just love to play. Either way, it is great that the cats get attention and used to people before hopefully being adopted!
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