Posted on by John Edwards

Cat Tour Draws Hundreds to the Wedge

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People said it couldn’t be done. They said “Chet, you should reschedule, it’s going to rain really hard and everyone will get wet!”

I said, “Please don’t call me Chet. This ‘Chet Wedgely’ thing was meant to be a joke but now it’s catching on.” And then, showing uncommon courage, I refused to cancel the cat tour. As a result, 300 hearts were touched and the sun never stopped shining. That’s 10 times the number of people who attended last year’s Wedge neighborhood cat tour.

Attendees (the ones who kept count) reported seeing over 50 cats. Most cats were spotted at windows — but others were seen on porches, rooftops, in strollers, on leashes, or scampering through yards. A man at 28th and Dupont emerged from an apartment building holding a cat and wearing a giant cat head. As one Reddit user put it, “does anyone else think this is kinda fuckin weird?”

At times traffic was backed up by pedestrian crossings. The crowd was so large, and had such an effect on car traffic, that someone called the police. The Facebook comments got lively on a Minneapolis police scanner group (a man wearing a camouflage jacket in his profile picture menacingly suggested people on the tour were nothing but “speed bumps”). No arrests were made — the person responsible for the cat tour remains at large.

This year was completely different from previous years. Instead of one relatively compact group, it was a long procession over many blocks. Sometimes I couldn’t see where the tour started or where it ended. So many great and weird things happened that I only found out about afterwards through Twitter and Facebook posts.

Thanks to all who participated, especially the Wedge residents who showed us their cats.

[Credit to Reddit user Spooge McDuck for the featured image at the top of this story.]

Officially licensed Cats of the Wedge merchandise from the Wedge LIVE! store:

📷 Nina Hale
📷 Tony Laundrie
📷 Tony Laundrie
📷 Tony Laundrie
📷 Tony Laundrie
📷 Tony Laundrie
📷 Carissa Miller
📷 Carissa Miller
📷 Leslie Hale