St. Paul’s new cat tour features the felines of Hamline-Midway

St. Paul is finally getting its own cat tour.

A couple of pet-loving residents of the saintly city are organizing the first of what they say will be the annual Hamline-Midway Cat Tour.

Organizer Libby Cook, a Hamline-Midway resident, and her friend, co-worker and neighbor Candace Frost said they expect to have about 20 cat viewing stops on the June 14 tour, including cats in windows, cats in backpacks, cats on leashes and free rovers.

Some cats expected to be featured, according to the Cats of Hamline Midway Instagram account, include Slinklord, aka Slinky, “who enjoys meowing, being pet and eating.”

There’s also Amal Jr, “an 8-year-old snuggler who loves to chew on plastic, sleep against the hot radiator, ride on shoulders and watch out the back window to guard against dangerous neighbor cats.” Amal Jr is also a minor neighborhood celebrity as the proprietor of a dog treat box located on Griggs Avenue.

The event kicks off at 10 a.m. at the Groundswell coffeeshop at Thomas and Hamline avenues, which will be selling custom cat-themed cookies with proceeds going to the St. Paul-based Feline Rescue shelter.

Cook said she expects the tour, which will be guided by an emcee, to be about 2.5 miles long, running between Pierce Butler Route and University Avenue to the north and south and Lexington Parkway and Snelling Avenue to the east and west.

“We’ll kind of traverse a large portion of the neighborhood,” Cook said.

She said the organizers hope to end the tour at a local park where Sweet Fruci’s, a former school bus turned into an ice cream food truck, will be waiting.

Cook said the event was modeled after the Wedge LIVE cat tour in Minneapolis’ Lowry Hill East neighborhood, which is scheduled to have its eighth annual event on the evening of June 25.

So yes, the organizers of the St. Paul event are copycats.

But Cook said St. Paulites love their felines, too.

“I think it’s a very pet-friendly neighborhood in general,” she said.

Frost said she and Cook wanted to create an event that captured the togetherness that the neighborhood felt holding outdoor popsicle nights during the pandemic.

“In these trying times, we wanted neighbors to have something to look forward to,” Frost said. “We’ve had really positive responses. People have thought it would be extremely exciting.”