Thoughts on The Inaugural Cambridge Cat Tour & Meowfest: Too Many People, Too Few Cats

 

This afternoon, I attended the inaugural Cambridge Cat Tour & Meowfest.

Those of you who take the time to read my dispatches will know that cats mean a great deal to me. One of the best things about living in Cambridge is occasionally encountering Remy the Harvard Cat although it has been nearly two years since I last gazed upon him. A year ago, less a day, I spent part of a Saturday afternoon at a cat cafe in Boston. 

So, I was delighted to learn that the City of Cambridge was organizing this event. For everything cats give to us, I don't think we give nearly enough back.

The gathering point for the tour was Dana Park which is situated in Cambridgeport. Much to my surprise, leading the parade was Cambridge Mayor Sumbdul Siddiqui.

The plan was to walk around the neighborhood where we would see approximately 15 different cats. This would take approximately 90 minutes. At the conclusion of the procession, we would return to Dana Park for the Meowfest. 

I think the city underestimated the number of people who would be interested. As we returned to Dana Park, I overheard one of the organizers state that they expected maybe 50 people would show up. Now perhaps that is how many people actually registered to walk. My estimate of the crowd would be 200-300 people. 

While it is great that there are people who want to see cats, the problem is there was a paucity of cats. Or should I say pawcity?

Many of the cats were part of the tour viewed us from the safety of a window. Although a few of the cats were comfortable with the large amount of attention, many were freaked out by the site of hundreds of people converging on them. 

Let us remember that cats are not dogs. They do not take orders. You cannot make them do things they do not want to do. Standing in front of a window to see a large mob is a hard no unless there are treats to follow.

Because of the crowds, it would take 5 to 10 minutes even to get a glimpse of a cat. As a result, there were a couple of instances when I would arrive at a destination only for Mayor Siddiqui to ask us to turn around which caused considerable confusion.

Considering we were in a residential neighborhood, not everyone could use the sidewalk. So, many of us had no choice but to walk in the streets. Although Cambridge PD were accommodating this did have the effect of clogging up traffic. We eventually had to pause to either allow traffic to pass or pause to wait for people to catch up. I will say that Mayor Siddiqui and the Cambridge PD were in close communication with each other in real time. So, they were able to adapt on the fly.

I should note that this event was supposed to take place a week ago but was postponed due to the Nor'easter which brought massive rain and heavy winds. After a week worth of clouds, it was nice to get into the sun in comfortable weather and see parts of Cambridge I don't regularly see up to and including its feline population.

All things considered, with the inaugural cat tour under their belt, the city will hopefully plan more effectively for next year's edition and plan with the expectation that more people will attend. Because people do love cats. It is an idea whose time has come.

Next month, there will be a cat tour in Somerville. Unlike this cat tour, the Somerville Cat Tour is sponsored not by the city but by Tandem Vet Care. Somehow, I missed last year's inaugural edition. In any case, I plan to make up for that error of omission. It will be interesting to see its logistics. Hopefully, this cat tour will have more cats.