Signups are open<\/a> to get your cat on the map.<\/p>\n\u201cYou can sign your cat’s name up with your address and then I’ll put it on the Google map with a little cat pin. Then we send that map out to everyone to follow along … and that’s what we’ll use as our guide to kind of go through each stop on the day of the catwalk,\u201d Francis told KYW Newsradio.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know we’re going to start at Clark Park and depending on how many stops there are, it might end around Pentridge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis is no stranger to feline-themed events, having hosted the West Philly Cat Festival in August, at Pentridge Station. That event, they said, went even better than expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had Purr Cafe there, where you could hang out with kittens. We had our little workshops where you can make cat toys,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing that people really love that we always have for our pet stuff is the one pet psychic that we have, Cynthia. People really enjoy going to see her and seeing what she has to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Francis had long dreamed of organizing an event like this, the impetus to finally do it came more recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last year, I think the last few months, I saw that Pittsburgh did their own,\u201d they said, \u201cand so that kind of motivated me to do a Philly one, because I was like, \u2018OK, they’re popping up everywhere. It seems like something that’s really manageable.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis, however, hasn\u2019t quite settled on whether to include their three cats, Sweet Pea, June Bug and Mr. Noodle, on the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought about it. They’re not big on getting in the windows and I’m going to need my partner to be there to help me. So maybe we’ll get those big cardboard cutouts of their heads and put them on the windows, and that might be our version of the stop,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
While Francis is focused on making sure the inaugural walk goes off without a hitch, they\u2019re hopeful that this won\u2019t be the last one \u2014 and they\u2019re open to expanding it beyond West Philly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to [collaborate] with people who are more familiar with the areas [where] people want it. I know someone had mentioned Manayunk,\u201d they said. \u201cI definitely would love to collab with people so I’m not the only one, you know, making decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n