Cat lovers in the community gathered together for Caturday on Sept. 21 at The Cat’s Closet in Bloomington.
The Cat’s Closet, which officially opened in 2023, serves as a cat lounge and vintage shop. Visitors can shop from its selection of second-hand clothing and hang out with the adoptable rescue cats from the Green County Humane Society in their lounge.
For the third time this year, Caturday benefited the adoptable cats from The Cat’s Closet and the Green County Humane Society. The event was free for everyone to attend and the cat lounge was free for visitors to go in and meet the cats that were up for adoption. On other days, the lounge costs $7, or $2 on Thursdays, for 30 minutes and $11 for an hour.
A cat looks up from a bed of colorful blankets at Caturday on Sept. 21, 2024, at The Cat's Closet. The event was held to encourage adoption of the cats.
Even if attendees didn’t plan on adopting, there were plenty of small business vendors in the parking lot outside, selling items such as crocheted characters, homemade jewelry and second-hand clothing. Visitors could also enjoy food and drinks from various local businesses, such as La Poblana Taco Truck, Piccoli Dolci and Jiffy Treet.
One of the small business vendors at the event, Riley Harper, sold sweatshirts with different patches she had sewn onto them, with designs from TV shows and movies like Star Wars, Winnie the Pooh and Yo Gabba Gabba. She also sold a variety of crocheted items, such as coasters and keychains shaped like fruit. She said this was the largest Caturday event The Cat’s Closet had held so far. There were many other vendors selling a variety of items that were unique to their booths.
“I feel like it’s just really cool,” Harper said. “There are some that are similar, like there were a couple other crochet booths. But just among the same people who knew crochet, the stuff that they’re selling is completely unique.”
Sydney Leeper, co-owner of The Cat’s Closet, said they have been able to expand on their event and bring in more small business vendors due to the amount of traction from advertising on social media. This attention on their event has led to other small businesses reaching out to co-owner Clairessa Winters to ask to be a part of future events. Winters received multiple requests from a variety of small business vendors, either wanting to participate again or interested in getting on board for the next Caturday.
A cat rests during Caturday on Sept. 21, 2024, at The Cat's Closet in Bloomington. The event featured multiple local vendors selling clothes, art and knick knacks.
Due to the construction on the other half of the parking lot, Leeper said they had to get creative with how to set up Caturday. This meant having more vendor space on the other end of the building which allowed them to expand the size of their event.
“Which ended up, I think, being a blessing in disguise for being able to throw the event a little bit bigger,” Leeper said. “It was exciting getting to have a little bit more vendor space, and I think that went really well, just getting to have a little bit more variety in terms of vendors.”
Leeper said The Cat’s Closet hopes to hold more Caturday events in the future, but they don’t currently have plans for the next one. More information about The Cat’s Closet and its future events can be found on its website.
