SEATTLE — It's the purrrfect side-hustle: travel the world, photograph cats, make a book.
"And we said, this is a genius idea for a project,” said Hannah 'Kitten Lady' Shaw, one of the authors of the new picture book "Cats of the World." She, along with her husband and photographer Andrew Marttila, are uniquely suited for such a project.
"Andrew and I, we both worked with cats throughout our careers," Shaw said. "Andrew is a cat photographer, and I do lots of education around cat welfare, and we both also rescue cats and kittens."
During their travels they were drawn to exploring how the rest of the world co-exists with cats. So, Marttila began capturing portraits of cats from Argentina to Uruguay – 31 countries in all, hundreds of cats and kittens. Shaw began documenting how cats live and interact with humans all over the globe.
“People just don't know what cat welfare is like around the world," Shaw said. "It's been really beautiful to capture the differences and also the similarities that we share in terms of the compassion that is just there globally for cats.”
There are 750 photos in this book, but these two each have a favorite. Shaw’s is a cat sitting atop a mountain in Montenegro. He lives there and visitors drop off food and donate vet care for him.
“And in this photo, to me, he is the king of cats,” she said.
Marttila’s is one taken in front of the Kuwaiti Towers.
“There were a lot of instances where we had a dream, a vision, of how cool would this be if there was a cat here," he said. "And we approached this area, we had treats in hand and toys, and we were calling for cats, and sure enough, a cat jumped up right in front of the towers and I snapped the photo.”
International travel with some cat treats has its hazards.
“We were in the Heathrow Airport in London, and Andrew actually got pulled aside from their security because of the mysterious bag of dried green plants. And they were like, 'What is this?' And I laughed so hard and said, 'That’s catnip!'" Shaw laughed.
Catastrophe averted. And thanks to this book, we now know it's a cat's world - we're just living in it.
“That's what I hope people will take from this book, just that there are so many different ways to be a cat, which means there's so many different ways to be a cat advocate,” Shaw said.
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