Paw prints and cat purrs filled San José for the second San José Cat Day on Saturday, bringing a furry-fun event celebrating all things cat at three different locations around the city.
From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., over 55 vendors of small businesses displayed their cat-centered artworks and creations. Additionally, a Cat Day mini poster was given out for the first 1,000 attendees.
A vendor marketplace took place at the Paseo de San Antonio, Mini Cat Town’s kitten lounge and craft stations were set up outside of MOMENT Post Street and an original art show took place at MOMENT Japantown on 208 Jackson Street.
MOMENT Japantown is a small-business storefront more than one mile north of campus featuring four stores, Pikarar, Le Petit Elefant, Thousand Skies and SJMADE store, all in one, according to its official website.
Kevin Biggers, an event organizer and the chief of operations at MOMENT, said they have been planning the event since last year, following the success of Cat Day 2025.
“We expect a lot of people to come out and enjoy the day, but I think one of the coolest things about this event, and the fact that it happens at three different locations, is you see just a lot of people walking or taking public transit from location to location, which is really cool to see,” Biggers said.
Cat Day 2025 happened on March 22 and featured the same vendor marketplace and Mini Cat Town’s Kitten Lounge, but also hosted a Garfield-themed original art show and a Special Sweet Treat Market.
At the Paseo de San Antonio, a block east of campus, attendees could peruse small businesses, including Faith Cao, Jess Craft Co., Panty Cat and Little Creations.
Some vendors sold stickers and stationery accessories, while others put up original artwork related and unrelated to cat themes.
The Fresh Pressed Printmaking Guild at San José State attended the event with a booth at the Paseo de San Antonio location and sold student artworks.
Mahathi Sridhara, a graduate student in education and president of the guild, said the club has worked to give members opportunities to sell their art.
“It’s good professional development for students to be able to sell their work,” Sridhara said. “(We want them) to be confident in their artwork, and make work that they think is good enough to sell.”
The Fresh Pressed stand featured a variety of artwork from Hatsune Miku and SpongeBob SquarePants posing together to a drawing of a cat welcoming people into a restaurant.
Sridhara said members usually make artwork pertaining to “fandoms,” though for Cat Day, the club focused on selling cat-related prints as this was their first time attending an SJ Made event.
“Since it’s cat day most of them are cat themed,” Sridhara said. “We’ve done the annual San José Printers’ Fair the past two years and the demographics and amount of people that attend that event are a lot smaller, so this is a good challenge for us.”
MOMENT Downtown San José on 23 Post Street, a quarter mile east of campus, had a kitten lounge curated by Mini Cat Town where foster kittens were set in a big cage for people to enter and play with them.
Mini Cat Town is a nonprofit kitten rescue dedicated to providing rescue kittens with forever homes, according to its official website.
Mini Cat Town has various malls such as Eastridge Mall, Great Mall and Stoneridge Shopping Center where people pay to visit kittens and potentially adopt them, according to the same website.
Jack Griffin, a volunteer with Mini Cat Town, said the event helped bring exposure for the kittens and help them get adopted.
“I think it was pretty unexpected that we are actually selling out very quickly today, and we’re very happy that everyone’s very interested in seeing the cats today,” Griffin said. “I wish that we could get more people in to see them all.”
Although there were limited kittens and space for people to enter the cage, the kitten lounge was fully booked for the day by the start of the event.
“The kittens bring so much joy to everybody, especially with how small they are,” Griffin said. “Even the people that are just watching from the street all have smiles on their faces and everyone’s just having a great time.”
Additionally, there was a café featuring treats from bakeries Don’t Eat Me, Baby Tiger Bakery and Franci Cakes.
MOMENT Japantown on Jackson Street had the third part of the event, an art show called Iconic Cats. The art show featured 16 artists and their cat-themed artwork, all inspired by iconic cats from Internet pop culture.
Martha Breed, owner of Henry Noodle Shop and a vendor at the event, said she hoped all attendees would find more joy in our feline friends.
“I illustrate all of these cat toys and then I sew them and stuff them with organic catnip and silver vine from a small farm in Monterey,” Breed said. “I just love cats.”
The art showcase also included plushes, hats, tote bags and more for purchase at the storefront.
“It’s great to see everyone out and about for the day, kind of exploring the city, exploring even parts of the city that go beyond the Cat Day footprint,” Biggers said.
