Ben Madilynn
If you were in Toronto in early September, you may have passed a herd of cat lovers parading the city streets with cat-themed signs and clothing as they visited the friendliest felines in town.
The inaugural event, deemed the Toronto Cat Tour, took place on Sept. 8 and went viral on TikTok after participants posted footage on social media. The two-hour tour spanned three miles, had about 100 walkers and featured 21 cats at 15 unique tour stops.
Natalie Czerwinski, creator of the Toronto Cat Tour, tells TODAY.com that while she works a full-time job in digital marketing, her passion for animals — specifically cats — drove her to start the event.
“If we’re going to divide ourselves into groups, cat person or dog person, I’m a cat person,” Czerwinski shares. “When you’re walking through the streets and you stumble upon a neighborhood cat, or you see a cat in a window, it’s a nice little treat.”
She first got the idea to do the cat tour in Toronto after seeing Wedge LIVE, a news platform for Minneapolis’ Lowry Hill East neighborhood, hold their seventh annual cat tour in Minneapolis on June 26.
“I didn’t think of the idea myself, but I did think, ‘Why not bring this (to Toronto)?'” Czerwinski says.
Czerwinski started planning the tour and promoting it on Instagram in July, and created a Google form for owners who were interested in registering their cats to be part of the event.
“I just did a lot of sharing,” Czerwinski says. “I posted in neighborhood Facebook groups. I made posters, which I think people shared amongst their networks as well. So it was just a lot of organic sharing.”
When planning out the route, Czerwinski used Google Maps to create cat tour stops that were walkable for participants. She also started the route near public transit, and identified at least one bathroom along the way.
“I did a walk through myself of the tour, physically just by myself, before actually leading the tour, just to try and visualize, ‘OK, what would it look like with a huge group of people behind me? What streets will we cross there, specifically cross? Are there crosswalks everywhere? That kind of a thing,” she explains.
Czerwinski recalls the initial excitement and buzz around the tour when Sept. 8, the day of the event, finally arrived.
“People were really enthusiastic and really great,” she says. “Both the participants of the tour and the cat owners, people just seemed really happy and having a really nice time. “
The attendees brought cat-themed signs, apparel, stickers and more for the tour, and some cat owners had little gifts for attendees after they stopped by.
“There was this one stop where the cat’s name was cupcake, and so the owners made cupcakes for the tour-goers, just really cute stuff like that,” Czerwinski explains.
Czerwinski recalls tour participants’ excitement around meeting Gravy and Cheese, two cats promoted in a teaser post that Czerwinski had shared on the tour’s Instagram.
When looking back on the day, Czerwinski says the tour was a success, largely thanks to a handful of videos posted by participants that featured tour highlights on social media.
The Toronto Cat Tour Instagram had about 1,400 followers before the tour. Now, about a month after the event, the account has over 16,000 followers.
Czerwinski has been asked to replicate the event in cities like Vancouver, Calgary and Hamilton, but due to distance constraints, she has no future plans to do so. However, she supports those interested in setting up a tour in their area and encourages them to try it out.
“I’m trying to express my encouragement for taking the initiative to make things happen if they’d like to, because it’s doable. It takes a bit of work, but it’s doable,” Czerwinski explained.
Czerwinski currently has an open Google form on Instagram for volunteers interested in being part of a potential future cat tour. She says it’s “very likely” she will end up organizing another one in Toronto for 2025, but she does not want to commit in case life gets in the way.
But one thing is for certain: There are enough cat lovers in Toronto to make it happen.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
