Landmark Anaheim, California, United States
Cats in Disneyland
Around two hundred cats live inside Disneyland, kept on purpose, fed at stations hidden in the shrubbery, and almost never seen. Where they are, when you might glimpse one, and why the park will not talk about it.
Where to find cats in Disneyland: Inside Disneyland park in Anaheim, mostly in the planted areas of Adventureland, Frontierland and Tom Sawyer Island. When: Opening and closing, when the crowds are thin and the cats move. They are nocturnal by choice. Why here: A working colony of two hundred cats in the most controlled environment on earth, kept because they work.
The short version
- Where
- Inside Disneyland park in Anaheim, mostly in the planted areas of Adventureland, Frontierland and Tom Sawyer Island
- When
- Opening and closing, when the crowds are thin and the cats move. They are nocturnal by choice
- How long
- You are in Disneyland. The cats are a side quest that takes as long as you give it
- What it costs
- A park ticket, which is not small. The cats are the one free thing inside
- Why here
- A working colony of two hundred cats in the most controlled environment on earth, kept because they work
What to bring
- Rope drop, or the last hourThe cats come out when the people go in. First thing and last thing are the only real chances.
- An eye for feeding stationsLook into the planted beds off the paths in Adventureland and along the river. Small shelters and bowls, tucked out of sight.
- No food and no reachingThe cats are managed by the park’s vets. A guest who feeds one is the thing the programme is designed to prevent.
- The Instagram, for contextThe unofficial account has catalogued them for years and is the best record of who lives where.
Why there are cats everywhere
The cats were in Sleeping Beauty Castle before Disneyland opened, and nobody has ever got them out.
The story the park tells, when it tells one, is that cats were found living in the castle in the 1950s, when it was still a shell, and that rather than remove them the park decided they were useful. A theme park is a hundred acres of restaurants, popcorn and hedges, which is to say a rodent’s idea of paradise, and the cats keep the numbers down. They have been there ever since.
Today there are about two hundred, by the estimates of the people who watch for them. They are feral, they are neutered as they arrive, kittens born on the property are adopted out by cast members, and the park’s veterinary staff feed them at stations hidden in the landscaping and see to their health. Disneyland itself says very little about any of this. It has never officially confirmed that the cats are there for the rats, and it does not advertise the colony. It just keeps it.
For a visitor, that means the cats are a secret in plain sight. They live in the planted areas off the paths, in Adventureland’s jungle, along the river in Frontierland and on Tom Sawyer Island, and they come out when the park empties: at opening, before the crowds build, and at closing, when the last guests are walking out. In the middle of the day they are asleep somewhere you cannot see.
You will probably not see one. If you do, at the edge of a flowerbed at nine in the morning, it will be one of the strangest cat sightings on this list: a wild animal, in a place where nothing is wild, kept because it does a job.
The walk
A loop through the parts of the park where the colony lives, done at the edges of the day. You are not going to find a cat by walking to it. You are going to be standing still in the right place when one crosses.
- From Los AngelesDrive the 5 to Anaheim, or the Metrolink and a bus50 minAn hour on a good day, two on a bad one. There is no fast public route.
- From The Anaheim hotelsWalk or the ART shuttle to the main gate15 minMost of the resort hotels are on the shuttle loop.
- From The car parkTram to the esplanade10 minThe Mickey and Friends structure and a tram. Be on the first one.
Main Street at opening
In at rope drop and straight through. The cats have been moving along the planted edges all night and are settling as the crowd arrives. Keep to the left and watch the beds.
Seen, once, by somebody who was early.Kingofthedead, CC BY-SA 4.0 Adventureland
Dense planting, the treehouse, and the jungle along the river. The most reliable stretch for a glimpse, and where the feeding stations are said to be. Look into the beds, not at the path.
In the planting. This is the whole technique.Sam Howzit, CC BY 2.0 Frontierland and the river
Along the Rivers of America, past the landing. Cats along the water’s edge in the early morning, and on the far bank on Tom Sawyer Island, which is a cat’s ideal territory: trees, water, and closed to people at dusk.
By the river, at the edge of the day.Sam Howzit, CC BY 2.0 Tom Sawyer Island
The raft across, if you are there early enough for it to be quiet. The island is planted, wooded and empty of people after dark, and the colony treats it as home. You will not see them at noon.
Close, for once. Most sightings are not.Kingofthedead, CC BY-SA 4.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
A feral colony, neutered and managed by the park, of ordinary Southern California cats: tabbies, tortoiseshells, black cats, the occasional ginger. Nocturnal, wary, and the least approachable cats on this list, because nobody has ever tried to make them otherwise.
The Adventureland cats
Tabby, mostly, in the jungle planting.
The most photographed group, because the planting comes closest to the path.
The island cats
Rarely seen at all, and never by day.
Tom Sawyer Island after dark is theirs. Guests are gone by then.
The kittens
You will not see these.
Born on the property, caught, and adopted by cast members. The colony does not grow.
Everybody says Disneyland hires cats to catch mice.
Actually Disneyland has never officially said so, and the colony was not brought in; it was found, in the castle, and allowed to stay. That the cats keep the rodents down is the widely repeated and probably true explanation for why. The park feeds and neuters them and otherwise keeps quiet.
How not to be the annoying one
- Do not feed them. The stations exist so that guests never need to, and a fed cat on a path is a cat the park has to move.
- Do not go into the planting. It is where they live, and it is also where the park will find you.
- No flash, no chasing, no lifting. They are feral and they will not be caught by you.
- If you see one, stand still. It will cross; it will not stop.
- Ask a cast member nicely and they may tell you which bed the regulars use. They may also not.
