This comedy YouTube video has no notes, but it speaks for itself. Guide cats!
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This Washington Post article, which you can read by clicking on the headline (it’s also archived here), describes a Florida B&B that’s really a tent hotel with dozens of rescue cats. Sounds good to me!
An excerpt:
As the old hospitality adage goes: You’re in their home, so be a good guest. At Purradise Springs, that means making nice with the roughly 130 rescues who reside at the cat sanctuary and, often, inside the tents. When not cohabitating in the Purrts, dens of luxury with soft beds and squishy couches, the cats prowl the property, blending into the landscape like lions in the Serengeti. Eyes aglow, they see you before you see them.
“The main thing is the cats,” said Thom Howard, 51, who owns and runs the property with his wife, Denise, 51. “We want to make sure they’re well cared for and loved.”
“After that, it’s the guests,” he added.
A video (more to come, and make sure that sound is on):
More:
Purradise Springs is unique for the sheer quantity of cats.
Just past the gate with the “Welcome to Purradise Springs” and “Proceed with caution” sign, Thom, dressed in a Jacksonville Jaguars sweatshirt, and a scrum of multicolored and patterned cats were waiting to check in the arrivals on a recent December weekend.
A few of the felines were resting in the tawny grass, motionless except for a slight flick of the tail. Others were supercharged.
“Watch out behind you,” Thom warned, as a cat shot past us. “That’s Monkey Boy.”
@kellykirstein This is not sponsored, I just think everyone needs to know Purradise Springs exists! #florida #fortwhite #glamping #purradisesprings #ichetuckneesprings #catsanctuary
“When you come to Purradise, ” Thom said, “you’re going to see cats enjoying their best free life.”
Over Memorial Day weekend in 2021, the Howards started renting three tents, with air mattresses and air conditioning in only one. People who were often drowsy after a day of bobbing in the springs didn’t seem to mind the heat — or the cats crashing in their sleeping quarters.
“You’re going in and out of your tent,” Thom said, “and they’re going in and out of the tents.”
The owners upgraded all three to higher-quality canvas shelters with real beds (two doubles or a king), colorful throw rugs, trunks that double as cat-proof food storage, couches, AC units and space heaters that, on chilly evenings, draw cats like moths to a porch light.
. . .The main activities, unsurprisingly, involve cats. You can sit by the fire or swing in the hammock with cats. Explore the property with cats. Nap in your tent with cats. Accompany Thom and Denise on their daily rounds with cats.
In the early afternoon, the couple topped off the multiple feeding stations with dry food, checking on the different colonies. The following morning, they laid out a line of paper plates on the lodge floor, placing one can per setting. The cats hovered like impatient brunchers waiting for the buffet to open.
After mealtime, Thom pulled out a handmade cat toy — bamboo stick, string, plush mouse wearing a bandit mask and striped shirt — and spun around in circles, kindling the cats’ predatory instincts.
“Caught me an Alabama catfish. Woo-hoo!” he said as Sassy tried to abscond with the prize. “Can I have it back, please?”
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And you can have cats in bed with you every night!
The first year, only a few cats would sleep in the tents with guests. The couple worried they might have to bribe them to cuddle.
“It took awhile to get some of the cats comfortable with the idea,” Denise said.
That’s no longer an issue. Thom said anywhere from two to 10 cats will curl up in each Purrt, though the felines you fall asleep with might not be the same ones you wake up with.
When December and Freeman returned from a local bar, they found two cats in their bed. “The tabby was curled up right by my pillow,” December said. They gained two more sometime in the night.
On my first evening, I hosted four cats on my twin, plus two — The Mayor and the fearsome Ginger — on the opposite bed. The following night, I was the only guest, so I moved to a tent with a king-size bed, which lured them in like catnip.
I had seven cats during the evening shift, which lasted until early morning. They commandeered the folded extra blanket on the trunk and my tote, the bed and my coat.
Here’s a map, and if you want to book one of the three cat tents on Air B&B. go here.
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And from the Globe and Mail, we have the case for cats, a case that doesn’t really have to be made after you simply look at them. Click below, or find the piece archived here.
Excerpts (the author had two cats, Negrito and Ensueño, who lived with her for 14 and 17 years after their mother had rescued them as kittens from a fire (mom sadly died of smoke inhalation).
I want to make the case for cats. They are not substitute children. They are wonderfully strange creatures that seem to be willing to share our lives. Enigmatic, implacably other – it is their mystery that intrigues.
. . . . . .Cats are introverts: intuitive, enigmatic, self-sufficient and selectively affectionate. Dogs are mostly extroverts, endlessly enthusiastic and loyal. They want to please. In my favourite New Yorker cartoon, a cat looks down condescendingly at a dog grovelling at his feet. “Your mistake,” the cat says, “was when they told you to bark, you barked.”I decided to look up cat supporters on the web:
Eckhart Tolle: “I have lived with several Zen masters – all of them cats.”
T.S. Eliot: “With cats, some say, one rule is true: Don’t speak till you are spoken to.”
Margaret Atwood: “Like all proper Romantics, cats are independent-minded, and Byronic in their contempt for authority. They are always well-groomed.”
Taylor Swift: “Cats are very dignified. They’re independent. They’re very capable of dealing with their own life.”
It lapses a bit into woo, though:
I tracked down the cat behaviourist Kristin Hulzinga and visited her in Burlington, Ont. “Cats are habitually under-stimulated, and their intelligence is chronically underrated,” Kristin told me. Her philosophy is that cats, to be trained, must be intelligent, confident, open to stimulus and like to be challenged. She added: “I would never ask them to do anything that they don’t enjoy.”When Kristin called her cat Zeddie to the living room, she came immediately and responded to commands: sit, stand, spin in a circle, weave through legs, high-five. It was extraordinary to see this beautiful creature enthusiastically high-fiving her trainer with a lifted paw. Zeddie has appeared in several TV series including American Gods and Jane, and in ads for Purina and TikTok, in one case riding a skateboard, propelling it forward with her hind leg.Kristin is fascinated by cats. She says they are master manipulators. They change their tone depending on which human they wish to communicate with and can mimic the sound of a baby crying. She admits they have a short fuse, which is usually because of a perceived invasion of their autonomy. She also believes cats can communicate with humans telepathically.
I learned that after 10 million years of feline evolution, cats are not much different from their wild ancestors. They’re the only domesticated animal that can return to the wild, readapt and survive. One thing that distinguishes cats is that they have a third eyelid (or nictitating membrane). This is a transparent or translucent pinkish eyelid underneath the primary eyelids that can be drawn across the eye for protection without interfering with vision. This is an ancient adaptation. How ingenious – Negrito’s eyes could be moistened without him closing his lids and losing sight of his prey. I imagine Negrito’s ancestors moving through forests and tall grasses, their eyes protected by the third eyelid. They see clearly in the dark night, picking up the slightest movement.
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Lagniappe: Excellent cases of cat “machine-gunning,” as I call it (here it’s called “ekekeks”).
h/t: Debra, Lianne
Love the seeing eye cat! Hilarious. And, the “machine-gunning” is so familiar. Our cats did it when they saw birds outside that they couldn’t reach.
Purradise Springs looks wonderful! 🐈🐈🐈
Absolutely wonderful “Caturday” today. I laughed so hard I almost cried at the Guide Cat video. Cat people will know just what is about to happen when they see what the cat is doing, but it is still hilarious. I need to keep the video handy for the foreseeable future.
And I would love to visit Purradise Springs! Although I have quite a few cats, most of them prefer the bed when I’m not in it.
There have been numerous reports that cats who are inside only do the “ekekek” at creatures they cannot get at, but that cats who are outside do not do that. This video should put that notion to rest, as quite a few of the cats are making the same sounds at potential prey animals outside. Some of my cats also made those sounds when they were still semi-feral–before I “tamed” them and got them inside only. A couple of them also knew that, when I made that sound (even though not quite accurate), there must be something interesting outside and came running to see what was going on.
Wonderful Caturday this week! Thank you very much!