The Last Safe Space On X
- Caroline Davis
- 59 minutes ago
- 9 min read
What would the world look like if cats had their own social media accounts? Well, there’s actually a corner of X (formerly Twitter) that answers that very question.
Cat Twitter is a magical place, filled with cute cat photos and whimsical, poorly-spelled captions. They have their own monoculture, and while sometimes a cat Twitter post goes viral, it’s mostly a self contained universe. (An important note: as a community, they have very intentionally refused to change their name to match the new platform.)
The Cat Twitter Universe
There’s a genuine sense of friendship among the cats as they interact with each other. “Interacting with the other accounts and the parents… the silly things that we say back and forth… interacting with everyone is my favorite part,” said Mi Mi, the human behind the international boy of love Baby Dog.
There’s a variety of reasons to join Cat Twitter, but it mainly stems from wanting to share photos of beloved pets for all to see. Ellie saw posts from Cat Twitter before making an account for her cat, Clee. “I looked at Clee and I was like, you’ve a weird face. We could do this.” Years later, Clee is a Cat Twitter micro-celebrity.
One of the most popular Twitter cats is Monkey, who can often be found being reposted on other social media sites as well. Though Monkey’s sister cat Oreo had an account long before Monkey came along, it wasn’t until adopting Monkey that Gabi started posting more regularly. “She’s meant to be shared with the world,” said Gabi, Monkey’s human (affectionately known as “Momkey” to many followers).
Another huge motivator for joining is the sense of community. “I wanted to join Cat Twitter, to sort of have that community of people who are similar,” said Winnie, Pearl Grey’s human. The mutual love and respect between all of the cat accounts makes for a wonderful corner of X where everyone feels like they belong.
And once you join, it’s not hard to find your place among the cat lovers. “I like that we all are obviously the same kind of crazy,” said Gabi, Monkey and Zoe's human.
Every new cat is welcomed with open arms; there’s no sense of big accounts versus small accounts. “Everybody else that I’ve always seen on the timeline before I made Kobert’s twitter, they just embraced us so nicely,” said Dijah.
Functioning almost as its own ecosystem, Cat Twitter is filled with its own culture and lore. If it’s Sunday, then it’s Clee Sit Sunday. There’s also Yell Girl Monday and Flat Fuck Friday, and the very popular action of “burgering” a cat, which is when you (gently) grasp their head as if you are holding a burger.
When a cat is accused of cat-related crimes, such as stealing treats or waking their human up in the middle of the night, there is one cat that always decides if said crime is allowed: Sorcha Boots. Whenever a kitty misbehaves, someone inevitably tags Sorcha Boots, asking “is this allowed?” and then she gives her ruling. “I’m like, what would she say? And sometimes it doesn’t align to what I think,” said Grace, the human behind Sorcha Boots.
In March 2025, when Wonton suffered a terrible fall after being adopted, she became a cat Twitter celebrity. A tweet from Friends of Bear Cat Rescue about her condition revealed that, “Both front limbs are a mess - fractured basically everywhere. One fractured rib. Broken jaw, fractured palate, several small fractures throughout her face.” For a while, her condition was touch and go, and it was unknown how she would recover. But in the end, her recovery was nothing short of a miracle, as months later she is relatively unscathed. Now, Sorcha Boots has decided that because she suffered so much, Wonton can do whatever she wants. Whenever Wonton is accused of a cat crime, someone (often numerous people) inevitably posts her “permit” in the replies, thus absolving her of any wrongdoing.
Wonton’s recovery is a Cat Twitter monoculture moment known by everyone. “Seeing all the support that Wonton got and how genuinely positive the community is… it was really inspiring in a sense,” said Winnie, Pearl Grey’s human.
Something truly unique about Cat Twitter is that it has its own dialect. Some humans post as themselves speaking about their cats, but many choose to post as if the cat themself is typing. Each cat even has their own unique writing style. Sorcha Boots speaks differently than Clee, who speaks differently from Pearl Grey, who speaks differently from Julie, and so on.
The human behind Julie’s account, Emma, has been on Cat Twitter since 2019. “There are sort of like evolutions in the shared meme style. It used to be every single word was misspelled, punctuation all over the place. And now I think it’s changed a lot more. It’s much more streamlined.”
Clee has a very distinct dialect, because she “canaut spell, nevre went to schol,” as stated in her bio. “It fits the way she looks, the way she acts,” Ellie, Clee’s mom, said.
“The way it’s created this new community and new way people speak to each other. It all started as a joke, but people actually have a distinct language and distinct references that you only get if you’re on there,” Ellie added. Certain words and patterns find their way into universal Cat Twitter language. Forgor has pretty much replaced forgot, pistangy has replaced pissed and angry, and bocks has replaced box. Most words that start with a 'C' will now start with a 'G' (for example, gomputer instead of computer).
Though it may seem like a bunch of misspelled words thrown together, there’s actually a lot of thought put into each cat’s dialect. Many factors go into determining how a cat speaks, and it often evolves over time. Pearl Grey’s human, Winnie, said, “Some words will be spoken right and some words will be wrong. But also, because she’s five, there’s probably more words that she’ll get right as time progresses.”
Sorcha Boots has a very distinct writing style, often starting her tweets with “ok so,” and spelling things in a French-esque fashion. “I feel like her soul just comes out. It’s like a chicken or the egg. I don’t know if her personality came first or if I put my personality in,” said Grace, the human behind Sorcha Boots.
Community Support
With every interview, there was one common message, and that centered around the community that Cat Twitter provides. The cats come to each other’s defense, especially in the face of criticism over catspeak.
Recently, someone dared to quote a post from Cheeto criticizing the baby talk. It didn’t take long for cats from all corners of Twitter to come out and clap back, proving the strength of the friendships formed between these cats. The post garnered over 30 replies, many of them questioning why someone would hate on something that is clearly done for joy and whimsy. Some also pointed out how it's a little foolish to argue with cats on the internet.
“It’s like they’re in a little street gang,” said Sarah Taylor, Cheeto’s human. After so many cats had come to Cheeto’s defense, she eloquently tweeted, “don’t fuk with cheetogang, i got shooters!!”
This community transcends the internet; there are many instances of cats facing steep veterinary bills, only for Cat Twitter to rally around them and raise the funds needed. One such instance happened in November for Dijah’s cat Kobe.
“When Kobe was feeling not okay, my first worry was him in pain. My second was, ‘How the hell am I going to fund this?’ Because emergency vets are just very extreme,” said Dijah, who is also a full-time artist. They posted about Kobe’s veterinary bill, and support came flooding in: within hours, Kobe’s followers had bought enough of Dijah’s music from BandCamp to fully fund Kobe’s emergency.
“It just reinforced the idea that great people exist. The world is not as dark and gloomy and mean as it may come off as. For people to pour in support for a little guy that they don’t even know, they just follow online and he brings them so much joy that they want to kind of support him," said Dijah.
The strong community behind Cat Twitter is what makes it such a remarkable place. It’s more than posts; this is a tangible support network. One beloved senior cat, Oreo, experienced several veterinary emergencies in the final year of her life. “I wouldn’t have been able to afford keeping her and loving her as long as I was able to without the financial support that people have provided for me,” said Gabi, the human behind Oreo before she passed, and currently behind Monkey and Zoe.
Even if you ignore the high costs, having a cat have a health issue is terrifying for any pet parent. In October, when Pearl Grey was breathing faster than normal, Winnie was obviously worried. She took Pearl Grey to the vet, where she was diagnosed with feline lower airway disease, commonly known as asthma. It’s easy to freak out in the face of a daunting diagnosis, but Cat Twitter provided a sense of comfort to Winnie. “I think going online and seeing other people’s pets have sort of the same issues has been comforting in the sense of knowing that she’ll be fine.”
Now, Pearl Grey is breathing much better with the assistance of her asthma treatments (the “help breath machine,” as she calls it in her posts.)
Inclusivity
Cat Twitter is accepting of everyone – cats, dogs, lizards, even humans. They only have one rule: no bigots allowed. Many accounts proudly proclaim that their account is not a safe space for homophobes, transphobes, racists, and hateful ideologies in general.
“It’s inclusive, and it’s inclusive deliberately,” Rebecca Gibson said. Despite not having a cat of her own, Gibson has been a mainstay of Cat Twitter since its inception. “There’s a real sense of if you are anti-trans, if you are anti-LGBT, if you’re any one of these things where hate is the central core tenet, get the fuck off of Cat Twitter.”
Gibson, who holds a doctorate in biological anthropology from American University, has not only seen firsthand how the community has evolved over the years, but is uniquely qualified to notice the behavior of the group. “I’ve never seen it do anything like go to the dark side, go bad or anything. It’s always been really supportive, really friendly, even when people have joined or left the group.”
“I think sometimes spaces try to be happy and warm and comforting, but they try to separate that from politics. And I think that Cat Twitter has integrated that in a way that I think is really special,” said Lindsey, another human mainstay on Cat Twitter.
A Safe Haven of Joy
Many users see Cat Twitter as a bright spot in a dark world. “There’s so few spaces left, particularly online, where people are just having a good time. So for there to be a nice little space carved out where you can just have fun is actually really important,” Emma, Julie's human, said.
That support goes well beyond the confines of the internet. “My mom passed earlier this year and Cat Twitter has been such a salve for me," said Lindsey. She shared that she could always rely on cute cat pictures with silly captions to put a smile on her face during such a difficult time.
And of course, it is integral in helping with the grief of losing a beloved furbaby. “I think it’s really sweet to see people share about their pets that have passed and kind of share in that grief together,” said Gabi, the human behind Oreo, Monkey, and Zoe. “There were some people that made art of Oreo after she died, and it was just really special.”
It’s impossible to scroll through Cat Twitter without smiling. It’s a place of joy, as it’s hard to find something negative about cute cat photos with silly, poorly spelled captions. But to many, it’s so much more than that; it’s a community that has proven essential to staying sane during such a turbulent time.
“I’m so grateful for the space, especially existing in such a terrible otherwise spot,” said Lindsey, one of the human accounts embedded within Cat Twitter. “I hope it keeps going. I hope it’s something that keeps on and I hope new cats keep coming. I think it’s just really special.”