The press release for this year’s Cat Con provides a plethora of pussy puns, more than even this lover of jovial journo jive expected. Branded as a “Purradise City” this year, the creators tout that “all kitten (kidding) aside” this year’s “meowments” (moments) promise a new level of “clawsome” (OK, that last one was mine). Celebrating felines and those who worship felines fo’ life on over 5000 square feet of convention floor, the fifth annual event has more amusements than ever, with over 200 exhibitors and even more “Insta-meowments,” from “celebricat” selfie ops (Prince Michael and Suki the Adventure Cat, to name a couple) to photo booths to the requisite convention cosplayers pouncing about. There will also be lectures (pet wellness, cat memes), an adoption lounge, an “optical illusion ‘Kitty Kitsch’ house,” a “Postcards from Purradise” walk through (impressive reference to the ‘80s new wave group Flesh for Lulu), a funhouse mirror that projects “cat-ch” (my pun!) phrases and more.

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(Courtesy of Cat Con)

Other cool cat shit (not the litter box kind) will include a Cat Condo exhibit built by professional designers Mario Arbore of Square Paws and Andres Zepeda of Urban Feline, and Cat Eye makeup application tutorials from Kat Von D. Beauty artist Leah Carmichael, demo’d on model Chrissa Sparkles. Von D., by the way, is Cat Con’s official beauty brand sponsor, which makes sense not only because the tattoo artist, TV personality and cosmetics mogul is named Kat, but she also has a long-standing background fighting for animal rights and promoting cruelty-free and vegan products.

Related sidenote: this weekend also happens to mark the 45th birthday of one miss Hello Kitty, and there’s an art show in her honor for those who want to keep the “paw-ty” (had to!) going.

 Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena.; Sat. & Sun., June 28 (9 a.m.- 6 p.m.) and June 29 (10 a.m.- 5 p.m.); $10-78. Info and tickets at catconworldwide.com.

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