Cats Herd You

One of my favorite parts of sharing a hotel room with the Mom from Random Felines is that I also get to have kitten roommates.

This year, those roommates were three siblings who are foster cats for Colony Cats in central Ohio:

Armani, a longhaired, black and white tuxedo kitten.

Gucci, a longhaired, orange tabby kitten.

Dior, a shorthaired black and white kitten.

As you can see, Dior wasn’t so sure about me at first. She even hissed at me when I scratched my fingers on the carpet to try to get her to come out and investigate me. It took about a day for me to become un-scary.

Of course, much of the entertainment of rooming with kittens is their kitten antics. Kitten wrestling.

General kitten hijinks.

Adorable sunbathing.

And stalking toys.

And when they weren’t doing that, they were mesmerizing me with their eyes, that were just changing color. Can you believe those long eyebrows?

I made sure I taught them a thing or two, also. They took to cat games on my iPad.

Dior was a big fan, especially when she didn’t have to compete with her brothers.

The boys loved killing the mouse on the screen, too.

I also brought the kittens a cupcake. That’s a spoiling-your-kitten-roommates privilege.

Don’t worry, they just got a little bit of the icing. That cupcake was bigger than their heads!

The kittens also made friends. Gucci was fascinated by Sophie from Kitty Cat Chronicles.

Armani, who was out of the room most often, met the most friends, like Snotface the ferret.

He also met Dexter from Playful Kitty.

Since he spent time in the cat lounge, he got to check out some of the cool stuff that was on display. Here he is in the NappingJoJo moccasin pet bed.

Armani isn’t the only kitten who got out and about. All three took turns visiting their adoring fans, and everywhere they went, the cameras came out.

But Armani was the only kitten who modeled a little hat for us. Doesn’t it go well with his tux?

Dior, who started the week hissing at my fingers scratching the carpet got more and more attached to me. She led all three kittens over to my bed to sleep one night, and the last night, she chose to sleep with me instead of with her brothers. Don’t tell Ashton!

I always have a cat carrier in my car, and it was really hard not to ask to take her with me. But she will be one of the first kittens available for the year in Ohio, and there is a family out there who is going to love her.

So I kissed all three kittens goodbye and sent them away on the bus. Okay, it’s just a VW bus carrier, but it looks like they’re pretending, too.

Let’s all wave to the kittens as they drive away in the bus!

It was so much fun spending time with the kittens, and I hope they had a little extra fun with me around, too.

One of the best parts about attending BlogPaws is seeing old friends and making new ones. In the past, nearly all of the non-human attendees at the pet blogging and social media conference were dogs. While dogs were still in the majority, there were a surprising number of cats on hand last week, too.

There were three kittens from Random Felines: Armani, with his wide, blue eyes.

Gucci, whose fuzzy, orange fur and blue eyes charmed everyone he met.

And Dior, their somewhat shyer sister.

There were three cat friends from Kitty Cat Chronicles, too: Castor was on his first outing. Here he is pictured meeting Armani at the Cat Writer’s Association booth.

Sophie, the ever-cheerful ambassador for wobbly cats everywhere, was here, too. She had a birthday party while she was at BlogPaws that were attended by many friends and well-wishers.

Kylo Ren was also on hand for Sophie’s festivities. As you can see, he had a lot of fun with the ribbons.

Two cats from Playful Kitty joined us at BlogPaws: Dexter was brave and curious about everything.

Mana, on the other hand, wasn’t as brave as her younger brother, and I only saw her in her stroller.

One cat I was excited to see again was Bug. I originally met her in passing earlier this year in a crowded hallway at the NAVC conference, and I wasn’t able to learn more about her at the time. It turns out Bug is a world traveler and adventure cat! Her human is a veterinarian, and at his vet practice, there is a special space for cat socialization, cat agility, cat boarding and weight management called Bug’s Gym.

This beautiful Maine Coon cat attended with the Averting CAT-astrophe rescue organization. He nearly had a catastrophe when his human unzipped his stroller and this guy leaped out onto the carpet as a ballroom full of people and dogs began to exit a nearby ballroom. I grabbed him and held him in place until his human could get to him, so we really did avert the potential catastrophe of him getting loose in the hotel. He is a big boy, and very friendly.

Sakie might need to be called the most patient cat in the world, since she has to share a stroller with two dogs! She doesn’t seem to mind, though.

Samson is a cat mode and therapy cat. He is also very handsome!

Cat lovers who spend time on Instagram may know Nala. She was in the cat lounge for meet and greets.

Along with Nala, Luna Rose was also in the cat lounge to meet her Instagram fans.

Speaking of Instagram, another popular kitty from that social media site, Yeezy, was at the conference. Yeezy was remarkably calm, even in the loud lobby where this photo was taken, where he was chilling out in a swag bag.

One cat who doesn’t miss a BlogPaws is Coco, the couture cat. She and her human helped staff the room so that the humans could check out all the latest in toys, climbers, beds, and other goods for cats.

That’s a lot of cats for one conference, and I know there were a couple I never got photos of. It’s great to see that the confident cats are starting to step out and represent cat-kind at the BlogPaws conference.