Friday, April 24, 2009

Fast Cities: Cat Lady Edition

Fast Cities: Cat Lady Edition

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April 23, 2009

Fast Cities: Cat Lady Edition

lonely-cat-dreams-of-love

Every year we publish our Fast Cities package [0] devoted to the most creative cities. Sadly, this year we weren't able to answer one pressing question: Which places are best for cats? Well you're in luck. CATalyst Council--a non-profit coalition that represents veterinaries and animal shelters, among others--just did such a study and has released a list of the 10 best cities for cats: Tampa, Phoenix, San Francisco, Portland (Oregon), Denver, Boston, Seattle, San Diego, Atlanta, and Minneapolis.

The CATalyst Council's ratings combined several factors, including cat ownership rates, vet quality, microchipping and "cat-friendly" city ordinances. Surely, these would also be the places where cat ladies dwell. Not even close! According to the U.S. Census, these cities have an overwhelming surplus of never-married men, versus never-married women:

cat graph

Initially, we were bummed that the cat-lady cliche was not proven by the data from the U.S. Census as the CATalyst Council. But then we realized: There's a dating strategy here, for any cat lady or cat-lady-in-the-making. If you find yourself meeting more cats than men, you should move to any one of the cities above. Not only do they suit cats, but they've got a huge population of unmarried men, just waiting for a good woman. And a few extra kitties are fine.