A Cat Circus Is Coming To Orlando In January

I had to blink twice to make sure what I was seeing is real and a cat circus is coming to Orlando in January.

When I was a kid, I used to love going to the circus. I remember how excited we would get seeing the commercials for the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus coming to Chicago each year. We'd get there early to walk around and get our light up toys. We'd get some snacks and settle into our seats for the excitement to come. When you think of a circus, you probably think stilt walkers, acrobatics, clowns, tight rope walkers, fire dancers, elephants, etc. But have you ever heard of a cat circus? I haven't either. But if you're a fan of the felines, the drive from Fort Myers to Orlando is one you'll definitely want to make.

The Amazing Acro-Cats is a group of orphaned, rescued and stray cats that have been trained to do a variety of acts. I'm talking skateboarding, hoop jumping, bell ringing, ball balancing, musical instrument playing cats. They can do it all! In fact, The Amazing Acro-Cats have even been featured in the Netflix show Cat People.

You can see The Amazing Acro-Cats in Orlando January 24-28 at the Orlando Family Stage at 1001 Princeton Street in Loch Haven Park. Tickets start at $20 with proceeds going to Rock Cats Rescue. You can find their tour schedule and learn more about this amazing and talented group of kitties here.

It's International Cat Day and you know where it's good to be a cat? Or dog? Or really any kind of pet? Florida is! A new study by Wallethub highlight's 2023’s Most Pet Friendly Cities and two of the top three are right here in Florida. Tampa and St. Petersburg. Side note, this heat isn't very pet-friendly. I didn't even take my little dog out for a walk last night here in Fort Myers because it was still too hot even at 7pm.

To many of us, pets are family — even if they’re covered in fur, feathers or scales. Animal companionship is a great stress reliever, and the nearly 90.5 million households in the U.S. that own pets want to live places where their beloved companions can enjoy long, healthy lives without breaking the bank. In 2022, pet ownership cost Americans $136.8 billion, according to the American Pet Products Association.

Years ago, pet owners had access to only a handful of businesses offering animal services and supplies. Petco and PetSmart were among the biggest names. Now, the market for pet businesses is growing to fill increasing consumer demand, and new ways to buy goods for your animal have appeared, such as monthly subscription boxes. Florida is really leading the way in taking care of your pet. Miami has the most veterinarians (per square root of the population), 0.3585, which is 99.6 times more than in Newark, New Jersey, the city with the fewest at 0.0036.

With animal parents in mind, WalletHub compared the pet-friendliness of the 100 largest U.S. cities across 23 key metrics. Our data set ranges from minimum pet-care provider rate per visit to pet businesses per capita to walkability.

In order to determine the most pet-friendly places in America, WalletHub compared the 100 most populated cities across three key dimensions: 1) Pet Budget, 2) Pet Health & Wellness and 3) Outdoor Pet-Friendliness.

We evaluated those dimensions using 23 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for pets and their owners. Data for metrics marked with an asterisk (*) were available at the state level only. For metrics marked with an asterisk (**), the square root of the population was used to calculate the population size in order to avoid overcompensating for minor differences across cities.

Finally, we determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample. Our sample considers only the city proper in each case and excludes cities in the surrounding metro area.

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Yelp.com, WalkScore.com, RentPath, Pets Best Insurance Services, Council for Community and Economic Research, Center for Neighborhood Technology, Sittercity, BringFido, InfoDog, Trust for Public Land, Animal Legal Defense Fund, Meetup, Realtor and WalletHub research.

Find the full study here:  https://wallethub.com/edu/most-pet-friendly-cities/5562