Cats Of The Magic Kingdom

Cats Of The Magic Kingdom

- Candilee Jackson

As a long-term full-time/part-time cast member (employee) of Disneyland, this writer literally grew up at the park where the orange groves used to be, in Anaheim, California. There wasn’t an inch of this wonderful place unknown to all the cast members, including Disneyland’s biggest little secret: the park is home to about 200 feral cats! If visitors look carefully through the foliage in the wooded and forested areas of Adventureland, Tom Sawyer’s Island and other bushy park locales, they will find both feeding stations and little cat houses intended to give the park’s furry cast members respite from both the California sun and heat, as well as a haven from the rain and sprinkler systems. When Disneyland opened in 1955, the many outdoor “lands” were planted with both dense and lush foliage which soon became home to a REAL rodent problem. “While the irony was lost on no one in the Disney Company, Disneyland had mice running around—and we’re not talking about Mickey and Minnie.” Although a great number of the park’s feral cats had claimed Sleeping Beauty’s Castle as home, there were many others which hadn’t staked out specific territories. These smart kitties found an abundant hunt nightly, without the usual dangers stray cats endure in the “outside world.&rdq