Published Nov 28, 2025
Jeff Bogle
Street cats roam cities and villages throughout the world, some of them skittish and others friendly and beloved by residents and visitors. These cats enchant people from New Orleans to Lima, Rome, Cairo, Athens, and many other places around the globe.
Few of us will have the chance to take a full trip around the world, but a new book – Street Cats & Where to Find Them: The Most Feline-Friendly Cities and Attractions Around the World, by Running Press – offers the next-best thing with armchair travel to feline destinations.
Author and photographer Jeff Bogle, who lives in the Philadelphia area, had visited many places around the world for travel articles, and he fell in love with the intriguing felines he met in so many places. Then, when researching this book, Jeff visited 20 countries over six months – including Peru, Chile, Japan, and Taiwan.
Jeff Bogle
Street Cats & Where to Find Them begins in Lima, Peru, which Bogle calls his favorite cat place. Here, several residents take good care of the street cats by providing food, water, shelter, and veterinary care; the volunteers may even adopt out some cats to visitors who want to take one home.
The Lima cats are mostly very friendly and, when visitors visit one of the parks where they congregate just a 15-minute walk from the shore, the Peruvian “cat distribution system” is likely to delight one out of every three parkgoers with a friendly lap cat, Bogle writes in the book.
He recalls an idyllic setting and blissful experience when he visited Lima, where the well-manicured parks with gardens and flowers and entertainment are a cat lover’s paradise.
“I would sit on a bench in Lima, Peru and in that neighborhood, watch parents take their kids to school, and couples on a date,” Bogle says in an interview with Cats.com. “Having a cat on my lap observing this, I felt like I was truly there more than just seeing the sites. I paused, I exhaled, and I just wasn’t moving: I was there.”
Jeff couldn’t wait to get back to Lima, and the second time he went, he took his wife, Lorelai.
“I was so at peace there in a way I am just not in regular life,” he says.
With vivid, colorful photography and lively writing with humor, Jeff takes his readers to 19 other places, including Matera, Italy; Amman, Jordan; Istanbul, Turkey; and Tashirojima Cat Island, Japan – to meet their outdoor street cats. Then, in the coming chapters, Jeff goes to cat cafes around the world, and he also visits cat-themed museums, cat festivals, and other cat attractions. Street Cats & Where to Find Them offers 202 pages full of cats, cats, and more cats – anything and everything cat that you can see in your travels!
Jeff Bogle
Unfortunately, not all street-cat communities are nearly as lovely as Lima. In some places, like Egypt and Jordan, the residents and governments don’t offer much support for the cats, who have to work harder to survive. It’s sad, but their story needs to be told, Jeff says.
“I didn’t want this book to be all cupcakes and rainbows,” he says. “Some street cats live these great lives, but I wanted to report on places where it is harder. Despite the hardship, there is a beautiful story. What I try to do in this book of essays is try to tell these stories of resilience. There is love and kindness in all of these places.”
Jeff wasn’t always a cat person; actually, he was the opposite! In the book’s introduction, he tells the story about how he was converted to a cat lover in his 20s, when his girlfriend took in a cat from her aunt. Jeff said the cat would ruin his life, but he quickly changed his mind when the gray tabby named Kitt settled onto his lap and made biscuits on his neck.
“And I’ve been a crazy cat dad ever since,” Jeff says.
He dedicates his book to his second cat, Tilly, whom he calls his soul cat. Both Kitt and Tilly have since passed away. Jeff’s cat family now includes Pecan, a tortie; Toffee, a calico; Fig, a tabby; and Dorian Gray, a rare breed called the Lykoi.
Jeff Bogle
“They’re such crazy, strange little animals,” Jeff says. “I love them so much.
“I joke in the book that cats have the most amazing ability to vet people, and know who is a friend and a foe,” he says. “If only we had that ability it would save us so much trouble in the world.”
Cats – both street cats and one’s own cats – offer so many emotional and physical health benefits, Jeff says. They help us relax and be in the moment.
“Cats offer me and people who travel such a unique gift of slowing down, and the ability to pause and take in my surroundings,” he says.
Next year, you could have the opportunity to follow Jeff’s trail of cat destinations and visit them in person with the author. In October 2026, Celebrity Cruise Lines will host the inaugural Street Cat Cruise, an 11-day voyage leaving from Venice, Italy. I hope I can go some year! For information, visit Streetcatcruises.com.
