Yes, There are Cats at Disney World, Too

For many years, I was among the hopeful believers of the legend of the cats at Disney World. The story was that the cats were kept in a magical kitty place in the utilidors, to be let out at night to keep the rats away. But I never saw a cat in the Magic Kingdom – and I looked. Years later, I heard that the cats were really at Disneyland, not at Disney World. When I finally made my way to Disneyland in the 1990s, I spotted two cats in one day. While this was the best Disney day ever, it was also the worst. It confirmed to me that something was terribly wrong in Florida.

where cat ladies come from

In the older part of town where I grew up, there weren’t really any other kids. So, I spent most of my time in the ranch-style homes of my friends who lived in the subdivisions that I idealized. To occupy my playtime since there was a lack of humans under the age of 40 on our street, my family let me have as many cats as I wanted. There were full-bred Siamese cats, stray cats, feral cats, birthday cats, and kitten-cats that were the offspring of all of the others. Instead of playing with dolls, I dressed up my cats and had beauty pageants. One of the many confessions that I have secretly held for many years is that the pageant was fixed – Midnight always won.

I was the Crazy Cat Lady before I was six years old. To this day, I am the one around here that people call or text when they want help finding their missing cat. What I know is that they are almost always within one or two houses away – in a tree, a shed, or crawlspace. Now, occasionally, a cat will actually take up residence in another house. I believe that one of my favorite cats of recent years led a completely double life, and cheated on us with another family, being gone for hours or a day or two and coming back fat and smiling.

The cats of the castle in california

The cats of Disneyland are well-known, and go back to the earliest days. According to the website disneylandcats.com, Walt Disney and workers discovered a clowder of feral cats when preparing to do some work on the Sleeping Beauty Castle. After weighing different options, someone came up with the idea of spaying/neutering the cats, and allowing them to work on the pest control squad. Feral cats have been part of Disneyland ever since, and are fed and taken care of by workers. While they are naturally nocturnal, it’s not unusual to see them lounging around near the Hungry Bear Restaurant or at Disneyland Hotel’s Rose Garden.

The spay-neuter program continues, but when kittens are born on property, they are made available for adoption to cast members. If you aren’t headed to Disneyland any time soon, many pictures of the cats (Ned, Francisco, and Nutmeg are among them) can be found on the Cats of Disneyland twitter page.

The Cats of Disneyland also retweeted a story about a man suing after he was allegedly bitten by a rat in Disney World. The Twitter page owners commented, “File this under things that wouldn’t happen in Disneyland.”

The felines of florida

It does not appear that there is an extensive cat colony in the Magic Kingdom as there is in Disneyland, where there are upwards of 200. Also uncertain is whether or not there is any sort of formal directive or understanding about the cats that do exist at Disney World. Like many of the magical mysteries of Disney, the full answers are elusive, even to most cast members.

What I know without a doubt is that there are indeed cats at Disney World. The place that I have seen them with frequency is at Disney’s Polynesian Village. For several years, we went through a non-camping phase where we stayed at either the Contemporary or the Polynesian. Through luck and magic, we were always able to finagle a ground floor room beside the volcano pool. On the mornings that I got up for a walk before the sun came up, there were consistently two or three cats dashing across the sidewalks into the shrubs. And this happened year after year. Disney World visitors (on Twitter) also frequently and gleefully report sightings at Disney Springs and Epcot.

Today, I live in the subdivision that I always longed for, and raised two of my three children here. Every day after school, there were neighborhood kids in my house and yard, and it was as wonderful as I had imagined. Yet, old habits die hard. While many of my neighborhood friend get together for regular soirees and shindigs, I more often than not decline the invitations, preferring to spend my evenings writing – with a cat or two lounging beside me.