'Cuteness overload': LA finds joy in a weekend of 'Disneyland for cat people' [View all]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/06/catcon-los-angeles-pasadena-kitty-convention

‘Cuteness overload’: LA finds joy in a weekend of ‘Disneyland for cat people’

Amid a year of hardships, thousands flock to Pasadena for kitty adoptions, crocheted beds and community at CatCon

Dani Anguiano in Pasadena
Wed 6 Aug 2025 10.00 EDT

It’s been a difficult year in southern California, with deadly wildfires, immigration raids that have that left communities in fear and thousands of soldiers deployed to Los Angeles. In downtown Pasadena over the weekend, though, the region received a badly needed dose of joy.

On Saturday and Sunday, thousands of cat lovers flocked to the city for a weekend dedicated to all things feline. Inside the city convention center, there were 200 kittens waiting to be adopted and hundreds of vendors selling everything a cat lover could dream of: treats, charmingly kitschy tees, crocheted beds and medieval period-inspired portraits of regal cats.

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There is no event for the cat-inclined quite like CatCon, which brings together products, educational workshops, the celebrities of the kitty world – human and feline – and, of course, cat lovers themselves. Here the question is not Do you have a cat?, but How many cats do you have?

More than 10,000 people attended the two-day event and tickets sold out for both days. An entire weekend dedicated wholly to cats seemed particularly special for people this year given the hardships across the Los Angeles area in recent months. “CatCon is a place where you can close out the outside world, and commune with people over our love of animals,” said Susan Michals, the event’s founder. “It’s really a happy place, and it’s just good fun celebrating our kitty friends.”

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