Panther

I went to a bike shop in my neighborhood to pick up a Presta-to-Schraeder adapter and saw this kitty! His name is Panther, and I think that the somewhat-gruff (although helpful) men who worked there were amused when I asked to take his picture.

Tiger, a.k.a. Skittish Cat

I'm cat-sitting for my friend Eva this week (you might remember Claudius), and I was waiting for the bus to get to her apartment when this little orange cat sauntered out of it's discount store and hid behind some granny carts. I tried to get its picture and it came out and rubbed on my leg, then ran back into the store. Unfortunately, I only got a picture of its butt.

UPDATE: I went to this store this evening and saw the little cat again. It turns out that her name is Tiger (not Skittish Cat), but she is still skittish as ever.

Kitty Prints

I know they are hard to see in this picture, but I ran across these prints in the sidewalk last night in Park Slope. Hopefully wet cement didn't stick to the kitty's paws!

Crazy Christmas Cat

I saw this cat this morning on my block running toward a house that is all decked out for the holidays. It took a very photogenic seat at the base of an oversized nutcracker. This is kind of like a "Where's Waldo." See if you can find the kitty in the picture!

Watson

Please pardon the bad picture, but Watson is a cat that lives in an old, raw Tribeca loft space (of which there are few remaining) where my boss' acquaintance stores the books that we published last year. He's got a really friendly German Shepherd and a cat, but of the five or six times I'd been there to retrieve books I'd never met the cat until today. I felt weird about taking a picture when he introduced me to him (named for Watts Street, where he found the cat), since I don't know the man that well but when I had a second alone I snapped a picture from the other side of the door.

West Side Whiskers

My friend Suzy saw this cat near where she works in West Springfield, MA yesterday and sent him along to me. I love the long fur! Very cute :-D This worked out well, too, because on my way home from work last night I saw a cat in the dark, but it ran away before I could get a picture. West Side Whiskers' other name could be Coincidence Cat...

Top Cat

My friend Suzy spotted this cat in my new neighborhood today.  He is a local stray, who a neighbor on my street had neutered, hence the clipped ear.  He said his name is Top Cat.  Notice his cute white stripe on his black tail.

Lucky

I went to a corner store in my new neighborhood and met this little cat.  I asked one of the guys who works there what the cat's name is and he said "Lucky."  Lucky was also the name of my first cat, who my parents found in a box on the side of the road before I was born and lived until I was 10.  Does that make this cat Lucky 2.0?

New Neighbor Cat

 I unexpectedly had to move from Ridgewood to another neighborhood in NYC at the end of this past month, but luckily every cloud has a silver lining--in this case taking the form of a cat. I saw this cat yesterday morning on my way back from the laundromat and couldn't get a good picture, but later in the day I was on my way to the gym when I saw him again, playing in a bush near my building!

Happy Halloween!

Sure, there's still a full week until Halloween, but I wanted to post this cat now rather than waiting and taking on the risk of forgetting to post it at all. I saw this "cat" in Brooklyn over the weekend in front of a house that was all decked out for the holiday.

Brighton Cat

My brother sent me this picture of a little cat that he saw near his apartment in Brighton, Massachusetts yesterday!

Julie

The corner store closest to my apartment just got a kitten!!  Her name is Julie and she is the cutest, fiercest little thing. Here she is killing the store clerk's hand:

City Kitties Travels: North End Cat

My boyfriend and I went to visit my brother and his girlfriend this weekend in Boston.  We ended up in the North End to get some pizzelle and cannolis when Nina spotted this crazy little store cat rolling around on the sidewalk in front of her establishment.  It was so warm out that I think she was enjoying an autumn sun bath.

Flower Vendor Cat

I saw so many cats this weekend, but was only able to capture one on camera. This little cat was hanging out at the  flower stand outside a corner store on Myrtle Ave. in Ridgewood.  It was so small and had a bald patch from where it had torn some of its fur off (probably from stress).  When I went to pat it, it licked my hand.  I wanted to bring it home so badly!!!!

City Kitties Travels: Sophie

I saw this little cat named Sophie hanging outside of the store, Munchies, where she lives on South Street in Philadelphia. Both she and her owner were very friendly, and the owner helped her into the tree where she is said to love to hang out.

College Cat

I was on my way to the class that I teach at Brooklyn College yesterday afternoon when I saw this cat. I've seen him several times before in this area on campus, but never got a good picture of him--not to say this one is great. I was really paranoid that one of my current or former students would see me on campus taking pictures of a cat so I didn't want to make my subject too obvious.

City Kitties Travels: Flo's Hot Dogs Cat

Flo's is a pretty well known hot dog stand in Cape Neddick, Maine. I haven't been there in years because the line is always way too long (and you can get hot dogs that are just as good and cheaper down Route 1 at Cat 'n' Nine Tails), but my mom, friend Lynn and I were driving back to my mom's cottage from a trip to Mt. Agamenticus when I saw this cat in Flo's window. I made my mom turn the car around to get a picture of the cat. It was still in the window the next day!

Silver Lining Cat

Sometimes you just have a bad day. A week ago I had one such day, which involved, but was not limited to, cutting my toe open and bleeding all over the sidewalk, losing my sunhat, and my underwear breaking on a routine visit to a public restroom. But I saw this cat in Williamsburg, and it was the silver lining to my day's big, huge cloud.

P.S. Do you like my boyfriend's rudimentary photoshopping skills?

Church Neighbor Cat

I've been lucky in the past two days when it comes to cat sightings (I almost met a cat who lives in an unrenovated Tribeca loft space this morning, but he wasn't hungry for treats, apparently).  This evening my boyfriend and I grilled burgers and then made s'mores on our little webber grill in our "backyard." When we were roasting marshmallows Adam noticed this little cat spying on us. At first it was shy, but when it learned that we were nice it rubbed all over the hurricane fencing between us. Its fur was so soft. It also had a flea collar, which makes me think that the church next door (whose property is on the other side of the hurricane fence) takes care of it.

Bonus Cat

Well, when it rains it pours. After a particularly long dry spell of not finding hardly any cats this summer I happen to run across TWO today (see previous post for the first).  I was walking home from the gym this evening when I saw this cute cat in front of a church.  It was cautiously friendly until, as I was digging for my phone, a man with loud cowboy boots walked by.  The cat ran and hid behind the fence before I could get a closer picture. 

Public Relations Cat

I wandered over to a coffee shop near Wyckoff Hospital today to do some work and on my way home I spotted this little cat in the doorway of a bodega. It came right out onto the sidewalk and started rubbing all over my legs and rolling around on the ground showing its belly. I think it is one of the most friendly cats I've met!

Good Luck Black Cat

I saw this cat today shortly after I met up with my friend Terrell who had just gotten off a bus in Chinatown. It was relaxing on Delancey Street near the Bowery stop. As I reached for my phone to take a picture the cat started walking away, but it soon stopped and gave me a nice little pose.   :-D Cute!!!

Victory Cat!

This has been a rough month for City Kitties. I've been too wrapped up in my dissertation to even post this wonderful picture of Victory Cat that I took a couple weeks ago. Anyway, who is Victory Cat? Well, Victory Cat is a little cat that lives in a plant store on Walker Street. I walk by the store almost every day on my way to work. Even before City Kitties was born I have wanted a picture of this cat, but s/he is usually hiding somewhere or the owners are around. (I am wary of the owners because they once yelled at me for touching one of their kumquat trees.) But recently I was passing by and happend to have my cell phone in my hand when I saw Victory Cat hanging out in the doorway, so I snapped a quick picture before the mean owners could see. That was certainly a victory for me.

Immigration Group Cat

The Immigration Working Group that I am a part of got together last night, and Jen spotted this cute cat on the Upper West Side! It looked well fed and was very friendly (you can sort of see Yi petting the cat here). Only its white stripe is visible because it was mostly black and too dark outside to get a good picture, unfortunately.

MTA Cat

My friend Heidi sent me this picture of a cute little cat at the Fort Hamilton Parkway N stop in Brooklyn the other day.  I was very happy to get this picture because a few months ago I was at her apartment and was unable to get a picture of a cat near her building.  This one makes up for that :-D

Happy Birthday, Scribble, and Doodle's Vet Visit

Today was Scribble's 5th birthday! We celebrated with a morning cuddle, some tuna juice, and treats.  But unfortunately, for the past few days Doodle has had some problems with his left eye and today we also had to visit a vet.  After reading about two Ridgewood clinics, we settled on Antelyes Animal Hospital.  We were very happy with our visit.  Both the vet tech and the doctor treated all of us with kindness, respect, and fairness.  They weren't sure what exactly is wrong with Doodle's eye, but prescribed some medicine, which will hopefully help him heal up.

Update: Doodle's eye was healed with his medicine within a week or so. Thanks, Antelys!

Garden State Cats

I was on my way to my friend Shana's house in Jersey City yesterday when I ran across these two cats.  I thought it was so cute when the calico one moved to look like it was smelling a flower just as I went to take her picture.  She is a true Garden State cat, I guess.

But the best thing about seeing these two cats is that I didn't realize that there were actually THREE; just by coincidence, the hidden third ended up in all of the pictures.  I didn't realize this until I got home and uploaded the pictures onto my computer!  See if you can find it.

Finally, here is a group shot:

Cat-sitting Week

This week I am a cat-sitter for the first time ever. But what makes this most exciting is that I am sitting for two cats who each live in two separate Brooklyn locations:

Claudius

and Clyde.

Scribble's plan to take over the world

Adam and I were planning a bike trip in Western Mass and had the map out on the floor when Scribble decided it was a great place to hang out.

Dot

This cat is really hard to see because he wouldn't let me get too close, but I saw him when I was in Dorchester, Mass. yesterday with my boyfriend while visiting his family.

Cat Hat

This is probably the most exciting City Kitty I have ever taken a picture of!!! I blogged about seeing this cat before although I failed to take a picture. But this afternoon I was on my way back into the building where I work when I saw this man (whose name now escapes me) and his cat (Nick... I think) again. He let me take a picture for a dollar. It was totally worth it.

Gato Loco

It's not a cat, but I saw this while walking through my old neighborhood in Brooklyn (an undefined area where Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Bed-Stuy meet). It was one of my first times back since I moved, so I had to post this!

"Little Italian Cat"

Today boyfriend and I rode our tandem bike up to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx (Doodle's home borough) and we saw this cute little cat in the window of an Italian tchotchke shop.

City Kitties Travels: Gato Sanjuanero

I took a brief vacation with my friends Eva and Helena in San Juan, Puerto Rico this past week and we met this cute cat on our way back to our hotel from a delicious lunch at Bebo's.

Doodle in his new bed

My boss gave me this nice Taiwanese woven bowl a couple of months ago.  I've been wanting to use it for a sophisticated purpose, but I never have any fruit in the house.  The other day I thought I would try repurposing the bowl and placed my cats' pet bed in the bowl.  Scribble checked it out and quickly lost interest, but Doodle loved it.  He hopped right in and when I got up in the morning he was still there!

City Kitties Travels: Philly Kitties

I had to go to Philadelphia this weekend to attend and present a paper at a conference. Luckily, I had time to explore and it turned out that Philly has lots of cute cats!

Below is a store cat who was basking in the sun in his storefront on South Street:

Shortly after, I saw this little cat running by:

Earlier today we took a walk down 9th Street to the famous cheesesteak corner with Pat's and Gino's (we didn't eat any cheesesteak this time, though). As we were walking back, we saw this cat hanging out in his window at home:

Then we saw this cute cat sign for what looked like an animal shelter... or just the home of someone who is obsessed with adopting animals:

Chloe

My good friend Suzy sent me a picture of her little cat Chloe, pretty in pink just for Valentine's Day ;-*

P.S. Suzy, your carpeting is just like mine!

Yet Another Graffiti Cat

I by no means condone the defacement of property, but these graffiti cats are always a nice surprise when I'm walking around the city.  This one I saw on East 12th St. this afternoon.

Pseudo Doodle

My boyfriend, Adam, saw this cat earlier today in Ridgewood when he was on his way over to Manhattan to meet up with me after I completed some ethnographic research (!!).  He said that this little cat was digging through someone's trash in their Ridgewood-style "yard."  Because s/he is orange and trashpicking, it made me think of Doodle and what his pre-adoption life was like.  (Doodle is still traumatized, I think, from having to scrounge for every meal for the first year of his life.)  Adopt your pets!

Marcel

My friend Heidi took these pictures of Marcel, a cat that lives at NY Studio on the Lower East Side.  He was definitely hamming it up for the camera.    ;-D  So cute!!

Chatty Cathy

I was walking home from the gym this morning, lost in thought about doing taxes, when I saw this little cat laying by a stoop.  She kept rolling around on the ground and made a lot of chortling noises, so I was a little worried that she might be rabid, have fleas or be unable to walk.  Well, the last concern was quelled when the corner store guy came out and threw a snowball at her and she ran away... I thought that was pretty mean!