Caturday felid trifecta: Making a cat into a feline influencer; Nimbus, Mt. Washington’s resident cat; beloved store cat hitches ride to distribution center in another state, but is returned home; and lagniappe

The Guardian has a piece by Ruth Lawes who, observing the social-media stardom of cats like Nala, decided to turn her black cat Olly into a social-media star. Did she suceed? Click below to find out:

Excerpts are indented.  First, the model cat (I had no idea you could monetize your moggy) this heavily):

The most famous cat influencer is Nala, who was propelled to stardom by virtue of being extremely cute and cross-eyed. In 2020, she secured the Guinness World Record for having the most followers for a cat on Instagram, currently 4.4 million, and now she has her own premium cat food brand, Love, Nala. Others include Don’t Stop Meowing at 2.8 million Instagram followers and Venus the Two Face Cat at 2.2 million.

These sizeable followings are also translating into cold, hard cash. Wardle tells me pet influencers with more than 200,000 followers can earn between £2,000 and £3,000 a post and £10,000 for a campaign, comprising three or four pieces of content. Accounts with millions of followers can demand “tens of thousands”, with a minimum fee of £15,000. More people than you’d expect, he adds, have now abandoned their day jobs to manage their cats’ careers, estimating you need about 200,000 followers to do so.

And so Lawes decided to try monetizing her cat Olly:

Frankly, Wardle had me at £2,000 a post. Turning to the family cat, Olly, I no longer saw a pet, but my first serious investment portfolio. Surely, it can’t be that difficult to make him into a social media star? I begin hatching a plan to turn him into the next Nala, using tips and tricks from the experts. Seven days seems feasible in the golden age of viral content. Hopefully at least one of us will get a pension fund out of it.

Olly in his “natural habitat” (photo described as a “handout”).

And so

To maximise Olly’s chances of becoming a cat influencer, I approach Niki, who runs the Instagram account Lady Lola and her Boys (336,000 followers), documenting the lives of her 20-year-old cat, Lola, and her two adopted siblings, Teddy and George. She began posting at the start of 2024 for a more noble reason than mine: she craved a creative outlet outside her demanding corporate job.

This first thing she did was to film Olly lying on his back and put it on Tik Tok.  Then Lawes films him meowing. No dice: Tik Tok is not set on fire.  Then a flop video flops:

In the morning, Olly collapses to the floor with theatrical abandon, and I know exactly how he feels. His small act of resignation, however, sparks an idea. “You can’t predict the weird things that people connect to,” Wardle reminds me. “Plus, it should be a fun hobby; you’re not trying to work your cat to death.”

Could Olly’s “flop” be our breakthrough? After all, others have built entire followings out of a single quirk – much of Organic Nature Channel’s 146,000-strong audience is devoted to nothing more than his two cats loafing. Emboldened, I post Olly’s second flop of the day. The post flops. I flop. Olly yawns.

Day six (a “USP” is a “unique selling proposition”—what makes a product (or a cat) different from its competitors:

On a quiet Friday, I improbably spend my evening “rebranding” Olly. I have not fully embraced Niki’s advice, and the consequences are evident. After a quick audit, she recommends I change the account’s name and reminds me of Olly’s USPs, which I have so far neglected.

It works, sort of. Olly – no longer “The Average Cat” but “The Black Senior Rescue Cat” – receives his first-ever TikTok comment. “Olly, you are a very handsome boy,” one user writes. I don’t tell Olly, though: I’m scared he’ll want to replace me with a Beverly Hills cat agent.

Finally, Lawes gives up after a week:

By the end of the seven days, Olly has fewer followers than my nextdoor neighbour, at 106 on TikTok and 15 on Instagram, one of whom is his vet. I am mostly to blame, as usual. Niki tells me she “thrives” on making content. I do not.

. . . . The threat of trolls, coupled with the demands of running a cat-influencing empire, are enough for me to leave Olly’s social media accounts lying dormant. As I realise this, he rolls over on the floor next to me, apparently in agreement. My online ineptitude – unimproved, even with the help of experts – may have destroyed Olly’s last shot at fame and fortune. But as he saunters over to his Amazon box and settles in I suspect he’s much happier than he would be on a film set or magazine shoot, anyway.

That’s what you get, I suppose, for trying to make yourself rich off your cat. What does your cat get out of that? This is rampant capitalism, pure and simple!

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As long as I can remember, there has been a resident cat living at the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire. The observatory sites atop the eponymous mountain at 6288 feet (1916 m): it’s the highest mountain in the NE United States, and it gets some dreadful weather. From Wikipedia:

The summit station of Mount Washington has an alpine climate or tundra climate (Köppen ET), although it receives an extremely high amount of precipitation, atypical for most regions with such cold weather. However, elevations just beneath treeline have a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc) which eventually transitions to a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) near the mountain’s base and the surrounding lower elevations.^[24]

The weather of Mount Washington is notoriously erratic. This is partly due to the convergence of several storm tracks, mainly from the Atlantic to the south, the Gulf region and the Pacific Northwest. The vertical rise of the Presidential Range, combined with its north–south orientation, makes it a significant barrier to westerly winds. Low-pressure areas are more favorable to develop along the coastline in the winter due to the relative temperature differences between the northeastern United States and the Atlantic Ocean. With these factors combined, hurricane-force wind gusts are observed from the summit of the mountain on average of 110 days per year. These extreme winds also contribute to the mountain’s very short treeline, with elevations as low as 4,400 feet (1,300 m) being too hostile to support any plant life more than a few inches (centimeters) in height.^[25][26]

Mount Washington once held the world record, and still holds the Northern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere record, for directly measured surface wind speed, at 231 mph (372 km/h), recorded on the afternoon of April 12, 1934. A new wind speed record was discovered in 2009: on April 10, 1996, Tropical Cyclone Olivia had created a wind gust of 408 km/h (254 mph) at Barrow Island off the western coast of Australia.

There have been cats as permanent residents of the Observatory for nearly a hundred years, and the latest is named Nimbus.  You can read about them at the Observatory’s website below (Nimbus helped write the article!). Click to read:

Here is Nimbus from the MWO page:

A few Q&A’s. Note Nimbus’s answers:

1. So, what is the story behind the cats at Mount Washington Observatory?

This is probably one of the most commonly asked questions that observers receive while working on Mount Washington. I am far from the first cat to find a home atop of Mount Washington. The history of cats on the summit actually starts back in 1932 with the founding of the Observatory. During these times, cats were kept at the Observatory to keep the rodent problem under control and to keep the weather staff company on their long shifts.

2. Who was the first Mount Washington Observatory cat?

The first known cat was Tikky. By 1934, logs recorded an amount of 8 felines kept in the Observatory, and some of their names included Oompha, Blackie, Ammonuisance, Elmer, Manx, and George. As decades have passed since then, the summit cats have gained a lot of fame, with my feline friends and I featured on T-shirts, posters, postcards, and other souvenirs.

4. When did Nimbus join the Mount Washington Observatory staff?

I joined the Observatory staff in April 2021, and I am now part of the long list of resident cats that have lived at the summit since the Observatory’s founding in 1932.

5. Where is Nimbus from?

In my past life before I joined the MWOBS staff, I was a cat named Greg and lived on the streets of Oklahoma.

6. Why the name Nimbus?

With staff input, the name Nimbus was chosen after the large gray clouds (just like my meownificant gray fur) that produce precipitation.

7. How old is Nimbus?

I will be turning 5 years old come this March. Don’t be fooled by my age though! I still have plenty of kitten energy, and can get the zoomies at any and all hours of the day.

8. What type of cat is Nimbus?

I am a Grey Shorthair, but don’t let that fool you- my personality is anything but dull!

9. Does Nimbus ever go outside at the summit?

While I definitely prefer the warmth and comfort of inside, I do like to venture outside when the weather is nice enough. When I am outside, the observers will spot me hiding in some of the little caves in the rocks. I definitely know where my food is though, so I always reliably come back to the Observatory.

11. What is Nimbus’ personality like?

I consider myself a sociable cat and I like to use meows, chatters, and purrs to get the attention of staff members and visitors.

12. Does Nimbus live at the summit year round?

Besides my occasional routine visit to the doctor, I do live at the mountain year round. When I do take a trip down to the valley, though, I always forget how there is 20% more oxygen at the base of the mountain than at the summit.

13. Does Nimbus like the winter season at the summit?

I am less than thrilled when the weather turns colder, snowier, and windier at Mount Washington in the winter. So, most days, the observers will find me enjoying the warmth of our living quarters. Sometimes, I’ll even lay directly on the heater in the living quarters when I am not warm enough.

Here’s a video about Nimbus, apparently wearing a down jacket, from Jen, the Good News Girl:

Nimbus even has his own pair of custom boots made by Limmer Boots. Here they are (I doubt he wears them):

And here’s a longer video about what it’s like to be a weather observer on Mount Washington. Nimbus makes a surprise appearance at 3:01!

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Finally, here’s a happy-ending story about Francine, a resident cat at a Lowe’s store in Richmond VA, who went missing. This launched a HUGE search involving thousands of people. He was found a few weeks later at a distribution center one state away. Click to read:

An excerpt:

Francine the calico cat is back home at a Lowe’s store in Virginia after going missing for a few weeks, hitching a ride on a truck that turned up at a sister facility in another state.

Two employees from a Lowe’s in Richmond made the 90-minute drive early Monday to pick up Francine, who disappeared in September and recently was discovered at the company’s distribution center in Garysburg, North Carolina.

She was back on the job Tuesday, playing with customers, posing for photos and soaking in affection.

“Francine is one of us,” store supervisor Wayne Schneider said in a telephone interview. “She’s just amazing. What she means here to the store and the employees, you really can’t imagine the outpouring that the employees and also the customers give her daily.”

Francine spends much of her time either at the customer service desk or in the store’s seasonal area. But things went awry in September as the store brought in items for the upcoming Christmas season. Store general manager Mike Sida said that disruption may have prompted Francine to seek comfort elsewhere.\

After store employees hadn’t seen Francine for a few days, they reviewed past surveillance video. There were glimpses of her in the appliance section and then the receiving department, where she darted into a truck. An overnight manager is then seen shutting the truck’s door and off it went to Garysburg, about 85 miles (137 kilometers) to the south.

“And then, of course, when she got down to the distribution center, she shot off the truck,” Sida said. “That’s when we found out where she was and she was missing.”

An animal control office set up humane traps at the distribution center, where photos of Francine were posted throughout. The center had dozens of monitoring cameras, and Lowe’s brought in thermal drones to survey the area. An Instagram account unaffiliated with Lowe’s dedicated to finding Francine grew to more than 34,000 followers.

On Saturday, Francine was spotted on camera near the distribution center. After more humane traps were installed, a volunteer checked each trap throughout the night. Finally, one of the traps triggered and Francine’s meows could be heard.

Schneider and Sida got in a car early Monday and drove to get Francine.

As you can tell from the energy put into that search and the video below, people really loved Francine. Few store cats would get that much attention! (This is a great video.)

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Lagniappe: from Larry the Cat, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office: click the screenshot to go to the video:

h/t: Norm, Ginger K., Simon