Photos: At The Snowcats Convention, The Cat People Are Here, And They’re Not ‘Crazy’

<p>Alex Scoville/CPR News</p>
<p>Cats and cat people rule at the first Snowcats Cat Convention in Denver, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018.</p>

Cat wine, cat rappers, cat yoga.

If all this sounds like the "crazy" part of the crazy cat lady stereotype, there's some people at the Snowcats Cat Convention this weekend in north Denver who would fur-vently disagree.

Cat lovers, and a few cats, flooded the EXDO Event Center for the first Snowcats Cat Convention.

The two-day event featured vendors, music, “catchelor” auctions, cat sweater contests and celebrity cat appearances, including from Lil BUB.

“I always tell folks that if an alien race were to look down on our planet and take in feedback or anything that’s posted on social media, they would probably assume that cats kind of rule over humans,” Snowcats Cat Convention founder Brandon Zavala said.

folks love iAmMoshow, a cat rapper, and I’m really overwhelmed pic.twitter.com/qVvzOojKIu

Zavala is also behind the Colorado company, Apollo Peak, that makes wine for cats. The Denver feline scene still has a lot of room to grow, he said.

“That’s why I wanted to set this up for smaller vendors and smaller companies to come here and show their fun, weird, unique ideas,” Zavala said.

Part of the convention’s mission was to change the perception of “crazy cat people,” Zavala said, but he laughingly admits that might not be possible.

“Not all cat people are what people would consider are these crazy cat ladies, or crazy cat men or people that are crazy and have 10 cats,” he said. “Some of these people that have 10 to 15 cats, they’re doing it for a reason. They’re doing it because they’re trying to help these animals either find a home or have a home for their lives too.”