The cat community around you: Today So Far

• How neighborhood cats could open up your local community. It already happened in Tacoma.
• Drought advisory for Washington state.
• Let's talk about fires.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for July 6, 2023.

Quick hits

• NW drinking water concerns could get worse as the climate changes
• U.S. is barred from combating disinformation on social media. Here's what it means
• Mike's adventures in art: 'Solaris,' 'Formation,' 'Fantasy A'

Whenever my wife Nina passes a cat on the street, she wants to take it home. As if cats on a stroll can be picked up like wild berries. I try to tell her, "That's somebody's cat. You can't just take it." But whether we are walking or driving, she insists the cats must be out walking in search of a home, specifically, our home.

"Seattle Now's" recent episode has inspired me with a solution. Perhaps these neighborhood cats are actually a source of community, and can add to a broader sense of home, just by being right where they are.

A year ago, Chris Watson went to Camp Bar in Tacoma with his partner Bob and a crowd of friends.

"And I told Bob, 'You realize almost all of these people, we met through their cats," he told "Seattle Now." "So the cats are building community. Cats are the most uniting thing."

These friendships started in 2020, when Watson took a neighborhood walk in South Tacoma. He noticed a lot of cats lounging in yards and on porches. Some even approached him. So he posted a video of his walk on TikTok, featuring all the friendly fur balls along the way.

"It had like 1,000 views," Watson said. "I was like, 'Whoa, I've never got 1,000 views before.' So I was like, 'Alright, I'm just gonna keep posting the cat walks, because people seem to enjoy it, and the third video went viral."

Three years later, Watson's cat walk videos on @Catluminati now receive hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, just by simply showcasing Tacoma's cats.

"It's almost like a spiritual thing where I can feel the love surrounding us," Watson said. "I'm sure it has a lot to do with the cats, but now it's the neighbors, too. And I'm sure that for people who live here, it's helped them see the neighborhood in a different way. We are dealing with a drug crisis right now, and pretty much the whole country has somewhat of an elevated crime rate. If that's all you focus on, then your like, 'Oh, that's a scary place to live.' But when you see the cat walk, you're like, 'Oh, it depends on your perspective. The things you choose to focus on.' And I think that we choose to focus on loving our neighbors, and the cats. I think that shines through."

"Seattle Meow" joined Watson on a recent cat walk through Tacoma. There's a lot more to purr about, so check that out here.

For those out there like Nina, perhaps a cat walk can replace the urge to adopt a neighborhood cat. Not only will you meet new friends along the way, you could potentially meet humans, too. They're also known as neighbors, a concept that has often been forgotten in our modern era. But before you embark on a cat walk of your own, Watson tells KUOW that there are a few tips and tricks to consider.

• Keep a bottle of hand sanitizer with you and use it after visiting with each cat.
• Kneel. Get down to cat level. Cats will feel safer.
• Reach out your hand and let the cat come to you. Never chase a cat.
• Don't pet a cat right away. Let them get comfortable. If you get a headbutt, then you can pet.
• Don't use food to tempt a cat over to you. It's not a good idea to feed cats that aren't yours.
• Move on if they ignore you. Some cats take time and maybe they'll come around another day.

More insights can be found on the @Catluminati TikTok page. Also, Nina wants me to make sure readers know that she has never, nor will she ever, steal somebody's cat.

Before I let you go, we should talk about fires. Because there are a lot going on these days. Between July 1-5, the Seattle Fire Department responded to 67 brush fires. Fireworks are the cause of at least two building fires in the city, despite the fact they are banned in Seattle.

A drought advisory was just issued for the entire state. It's an advisory, so it's more like the state is saying, "Hey, we're not calling any emergency just yet, but we all need to really conserve water over this summer." El Niño and climate change have combined this season to create some hot conditions locally, and around the globe. That has melted our snowpack quite a bit already. It also means the land is dry. All it takes is a spark to blow it up.

Which brings me to campfires, and keeping them cold. Campsites around here fill up in the summer. And in my opinion, camping isn't worth it unless you have a nice campfire. That sort of attitude makes state officials nervous, especially this time of year, under these dry conditions. So the current message is: Keep a cold campfire. In other words, when your done with a fire, put it out, and monitor it until it is cold. Even a tiny spark from a smoldering fire can blow away and start a blaze that ruins everybody's day. Read more here.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

"Solaris," at Book It Rep. featuring (left to right) Alexandra Tavares, Ian Bond, Brandon Ryan, and Jay Woods. It's KUOW reporter Mike Davis' arts pick of the week. It also happens to be the theater company's very last performance before shutting down. (Anthony Floyd)

DID YOU KNOW?

There's an annual tradition that patriots participate in every Fourth of July holiday. It's an honored USA tradition with fantastic lights and dazzling spectacle — watching the 1996 hit film "Independence Day." At least, that's what I do to celebrate.

Spoilers ahead, but in my defense, you've had nearly 30 years to watch it.

One of fun factoid about this film that I get a kick out of is a particular special effect. When the aliens arrive, a ship hovers over New York and blows up the Empire State Building with flames blasting from the top to the bottom. When filmmakers were cranking this film out (it only took just over two months to film!) they came to a problem with the big finale, when crop duster Russell Casse flies his plane into the primary alien weapon and blows up the entire spaceship. In the original version of the movie, Russell is turned away when he attempts to volunteer to fly a jet for the big fight. The first version had him then stealing a missile, strapping it to his crop duster plane, and flying it into the ship. But filmmakers felt that it wasn't very believable (in a film about invading aliens and Area 51). So some reshoots were done to change the story.

The version we now see is one where Russell is accepted to fly a jet. Because of this change, the original big explosion was compromised. So filmmakers got crafty. They took footage of the massive explosion of the Empire State Building, turned it upside down, and superimposed it over the spaceship. Now, it looks like the explosion goes from bottom up. That's really an exploding model of the Empire State Building, tucked up inside the ship, that you're watching. Same big explosion, at the beginning and at the end, and nobody was the wiser.

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