When Is International Cat Day? Plus National Cat Day and Every Cat Day of the Year

International Cat Day is on 8 August every year. It isn’t the only date for cats, though. In the United States, National Cat Day is on 29 October. Japan celebrates cats on 22 February, Italy on 17 February and Russia on 1 March, and there are separate days for black cats and for community cats.

This guide lists the main cat days of the year, who started each one and what it is for, with ideas for marking them, including a visit to a cat café.

Cat Days at a Glance

When Is International Cat Day?

International Cat Day falls on 8 August every year. Some people call it World Cat Day, and it is the same day. According to press reports, it was started in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), and since 2020 it has been looked after by International Cat Care, a UK cat welfare charity, which picks a theme each year.

The theme for 2026 was #ThinkCAT, a reminder of three things cats need: cat-friendly care, an annual vet check-up and the right care for each stage of life. In 2025 it was #CatFriendlyEveryDay. Shelters, rescues and cat cafés use the day for adoption drives, fundraisers and open days, and owners share photos with #InternationalCatDay.

National Cat Day (29 October)

National Cat Day is an American day, held on 29 October. It was founded in 2005 by Colleen Paige to get people thinking about how many cats need rescuing each year, so it leans towards adoption more than International Cat Day does. Many US shelters run adoption specials around it. In 2024, for example, the Houston Humane Society waived its cat adoption fees for the day. In 2026 it is held for the 22nd time, 21 years after the first.

Black Cat Days

Black cats get two days of their own, because they have long been passed over at shelters.

• National Black Cat Day (27 October, UK). Cats Protection, Britain’s largest cat charity, started it in 2011. At the time, black and black-and-white cats took about a week longer to find homes than cats of other colours. The charity says that gap has narrowed since.
• Black Cat Appreciation Day (17 August, US). Wayne H. Morris started it in 2011 in memory of his sister June and her black cat, Sinbad, who both died that year. It aims to counter the superstitions that still follow black cats.

Global Cat Day (16 October)

Alley Cat Allies, an American advocacy group, created National Feral Cat Day in 2001 to promote trap-neuter-return, the practice of neutering community cats and returning them to where they live. It now runs the day as Global Cat Day and National Feral Cat Day, still on 16 October, with events to help outdoor and community cats.

Cat Days Around the World

• Japan, 22 February. Japan’s Cat Day (猫の日, Neko no Hi) was set in 1987 by a Cat Day committee with the country’s pet food industry association. The date was chosen because 2/22 reads as “nyan nyan nyan”, the Japanese “meow”. Shops and cafés across Japan mark it with cat-themed promotions. Our guide to cat cafés in Japan covers where to go.
• Italy, 17 February. Italy’s Festa del Gatto dates from 1990, when readers of the cat magazine Tuttogatto voted for the date. February is the month of Aquarius, a sign associated with free spirits like cats, and 17 is Italy’s unlucky number. In Roman numerals, XVII is an anagram of VIXI, “I have lived”, which suits an animal said to have several lives.
• Poland, 17 February. Poland has marked the same date since 2006, though Poles call it World Cat Day (Światowy Dzień Kota), which can be confusing.
• Russia, 1 March. Russia’s unofficial Cat Day is usually credited to the Moscow Cat Museum and the magazine Kot i Pyos (“Cat and Dog”), which launched it in 2004.

Other Dates for Cats

• World Spay Day (last Tuesday of February). It began in 1995 as Spay Day USA, created by the actress Doris Day’s animal charity, and became World Spay Day in 2012. Many clinics and charities run low-cost neutering events around it.
• Adopt a Shelter Cat Month (June, US). The ASPCA promotes cat adoption through June, when shelters fill up with kittens. In 2026 its campaign in New York, Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio, ran on through July and rehomed 338 cats.

How to Celebrate a Cat Day

Visit a cat café. Many cat cafés hold events on International Cat Day and National Cat Day, and at an adoption café your entry fee helps pay for the cats’ care. On International Cat Day 2025, Mrs. Wilson’s Cafe in Kolkata held a two-day adoption drive with the rescue group Furrfolks, and the owner said 11 kittens found homes. Espurresso Cat Cafe in Bayside, Queens, marks the day every year with adoptable cats from a local rescue. You can find a café near you on our map or by country and city, and our guide to what a cat café is explains how a visit works.

Adopt. National Cat Day and Black Cat Day are good times to adopt, because shelters often run adoption events or reduced fees. If you can’t adopt, fostering a cat for a shelter helps too.

Donate. Cat charities welcome donations of money, food or supplies. Well-known ones include International Cat Care, Cats Protection in the UK, and Alley Cat Allies, EveryCat Health Foundation, Best Friends Animal Society and the ASPCA in the US. Your local shelter is often the one that needs it most.

Spoil your own cat. A new toy and some extra playtime go a long way. A wand toy is a classic, an automatic ball keeps a cat busy while you’re out, and catnip sardines are a favorite here. If your cat is due a check-up, International Cat Care’s #ThinkCAT theme is a good reminder to book one.

A simple toy can keep a cat busy for hours. Photo: Kopa, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Share. Post a photo of your cat with #InternationalCatDay, #NationalCatDay or #BlackCatDay. Estimates put the world’s cats, counting pets, strays and feral cats, at somewhere between 600 million and a billion, so you’ll have plenty of company.