Mew Year for Cats Day

What the day is

Happy Mew Year for Cats Day is observed on January 2. The joke is in the name, and the timing is better than it first appears: the cat's new year begins the day after the fireworks, visitors and disrupted routines end.

Origin and background

The day is commonly attributed to Thomas and Ruth Roy, who created a large number of novelty observances and registered them with holiday calendars. Documentation is thin, as it is for most days of this kind, and no formal organization sponsors it.

Whatever its provenance, early January is a genuinely useful moment to think about a cat's wellbeing, because the preceding fortnight is one of the harder stretches of the year for them. Cats are territorial and routine-driven, and the holidays disrupt both: unfamiliar people in the house, furniture moved, feeding times shifted, and sustained noise. Signs of stress are easy to misread as bad behavior, including hiding, over-grooming, litter box avoidance and reduced appetite.

The household is also temporarily more dangerous. Lilies are severely toxic to cats, and even pollen groomed off fur can cause kidney failure. Tinsel and ribbon are the classic linear foreign body that requires surgery. Chocolate, alcohol left in glasses and some festive plants are all hazards, and outdoor cats face cold, antifreeze and fewer safe places to shelter.

How to take part

• Restore the routine. Feed at the usual times and put the furniture back; cats settle faster than people expect once the environment is predictable again.
• Do a sweep for leftovers: ribbon, tinsel, wrapping, lilies, glasses with alcohol in them.
• Check the microchip details are current. Registration is only useful if the phone number still works.
• Book the vet check you have been postponing. January is quieter at most practices.
• Give them somewhere high and somewhere hidden. Both are how cats regulate stress.
• Replace the cardboard box the holidays produced with a better one, and accept that it will be preferred to anything purchased.