17th February is official National Cat Day in Italy - 3 days after Valentine’s – and it was introduced in 1990 to celebrate our beloved and charming feline friends. National Cat Day is a further opportunity for pampering our small, great life companion.
But why was National Cat Day introduced and why on 17th February?
Journalist Claudia Angeletti had the idea to dedicate a special day to our small felines, so she launched a real referendum among the Tuttogatto magazine readers to set a date for this celebration.
A lot of people took part in the referendum, suggesting their dates and giving reasons for their choices. The most convincing date was Ms Oriella Del Col’s one, which was actually 17th February.
Ms Del Col gave different and persuasive reasons to support her idea, which resulted in 17th February being declared National Cat Day.
First of all, February’s zodiac sign is aquarius, which is associated with a free and eccentric spirit: in fact, cats love to live their own life with no rules!
Number 17 instead has always been associated to the idea of bad luck, just like cats had been for a long time.
Number 17 bad reputation comes from the anagram of Roman number XVII, which is “VIXI” – namely “I lived” and, consequently, “I died”. However, this is not true for cats, who can live many lives instead: so 17 becomes “1 life for 7 times”!
Regardless of motivations, 17th February is National Cat Day, a perfect occasion to celebrate our feline friends and loyal life companion and, above all, a good chance to educate people on protecting and respecting cats, every day.
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