I have to introduce this list with ‘for what it is worth’ because how do you decide on the top US cities for the domestic cat? The one thing you can’t measure is how good the cat guardians are unless you inspect every home and watch the people interact with their cats. That was not done and could not be done.
What a pet insurance company and a real estate brokerage did do was to check (1) services in the city for cats such as vet clinics and animal shelters and (2) check the sort of homes in the city. They argued that certain homes are more suited to cats and are ‘cat friendly’. That’s true of course but it’s far from accurate because a cat might be immensely content in a small 2 bed bungalow because his human companion is superb while utterly miserable in a mansion in five acres because the owner is never to be seen and the housemaid hates cats. You get the argument. Despite these weaknesses in the way it has been assessed, this is the list:
- Corvallis, Oregon
- Spokane, Washington
- Orlando, Florida
- Bellingham, Washington
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- New York, New York
- Dayton, Ohio
- Clarksville, Tennessee
- San Antonio, Texas
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Eugene, Oregon
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Allentown, Pennslyvania
- Dover, Delaware
- Columbus, Ohio
- Boise, Idaho
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Tacoma, Washington
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Portland, Oregon
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- Santa Rosa, California
- Oakland, California
If I am fortunate enough to have a visitor to this site from one of these cities, please tell me what you think about where you live in a comment. Thanks.
P.S. They also checked out the likelihood of toxic plants being present in the city as another criteria. Not sure about that but it was in the mix.
The insurance company and the real estate agent are Trupanion and Redfin respectively. The story comes from People.com on MSN.com.