When you were at camp, did you ever think, "This place needs more cats?" Well, now you can have a camp-like experience with some feline friends, if a campfire with logs formed out of cat food is up your alley.
Purina ONE, which opened up a pop-up cat cafe last year, has now created a Cat Camp at 201 Mulberry Street, so humans can learn about keeping cats healthy. And the camp is filled with extremely adorable and adoptable cats from Petfinder. For instance, Breakfast, a two-year-old male, instantly captured my heart because he's a one-eyed pirate kitty.
Inside the space, there are a few stations to encourage humans to understand cat behavior, like a pond filled with projected fish (that the cats pounce on); a climbing wall for humans and climbable tree trunks for cats; and even a yoga studio for you do your best cat stretches. There's also the aforementioned campfire, where kittens were destroying hay bales and veterinarian Deborah Greco shows visitors how to check cats for whole body health.
Kittens being kittens (Jen Chung / Gothamist)
Greco gave us some tips for keeping cats active in NYC apartments: Floating cat shelves around the apartment are great for cat climbing as well as perfect for giving them a chance to perch up high and observe their domain, like a predator. You could even hide small portions of their dry food around the house (like on top of the fridge) so they can explore and climb. If you're lucky enough to have a patio or terrace, consider making a catio. And you can always get a laser pointer, cat puzzle feeders, and feather wands. Oh, and if your cats go crazy at night (it's their frenetic random activity period), Greco suggests playing with them before you go to bed so they can "get their ya ya's out."
However, most of you will go to there to enjoy the KITTEHS!!!!
Cat Camp will be open from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m., starting today, Friday, July 31, through Sunday, August 1. You can even make your own cat toy crafts! And if you can't make it down there, it is being Periscoped—just go to @PurinaONECat.
