Dogs get a good rap as man’s best friend, but cool kids know cats are truly the purrfect pets. Our feline friends are cuddly, snuggly and sassy to boot, but not all cities are the cat’s meow.
OneVet is a new web service that connects pet parents of cats, dogs and all furry sorts with veterinarians virtually, and it recently took stock of cities across the United States, ranking them by cat friendliness.
Researchers considered five points: the number of pet-friendly rental homes per 100,000 residents; the number of vets per 100,000 residents; the number of cat adoptions in 2020; the number of cat cafes; and the number of pet stores per 100,000 residents.
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After crunching the numbers and chasing some lasers, Miami turned up as the most luxurious place to be a cat. The Magic City saw 642 cats adopted per capita last year, and it boasts a high number of pet stores. That puts it atop the com-pet-tition, but its northern neighbor Orlando comes in at a close second. In fact, three Florida cities made the top 10, rounding out with Tampa in ninth place.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, New York City measured as the least comfortable city for kitties. Even though it does have a cat cafe or two (one of only three cities on the list 10-least friendly cat communities), the Big Apple saw less cat adoptions in 2020 than anywhere else on OneVet’s map, which might be due to the fact that it has a very low stats for cat-friendly rental policies.
California’s major hubs didn’t fair so well, either. Los Angeles and San Francisco landed on the worst U.S. cat cities list at No. 6 and 8 respectively. If you’re a California cat lover, you might consider a move to Riverside, which landed at No. 10 on the best cities for kitties list.
OneVet didn’t stop at best and worst. The full study also ranks the cities with the most cat adoptions in 2020, which saw Denver take the top spot with 1,342 adoptions per 100,000 residents, and the cities with the most cat-friendly rentals where Atlanta takes the crown.
See the full best and worst lists below, and visit OneVet’s full study to see all the data-driven details.
Photography by: Kristina Yadykina / Unsplash; Courtesy OneVet
