• Catstravaganza is a worldwide affair. And to that effect, one of our most passionate regular readers, @khakhov, sent along some particularly cute kitty photos from the island of Mauritius. We have to admit, anytime a cat chews on a blanket, it melts our hearts and makes us feel a bit too cheery inside:

• A pretty tasty snack There are many awesome things about this photo – the claws, the chewing – but our favorite is the ultra-colorful eyes.
• Some pretty serious navel-gazing “Look at that serious little upside-down face,” @khakhov tells us. That’s only one part of what makes this photo cool. We dig the disorientation.

• Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article listed somewhere else as the home point for this wonderful cat. Sorry about that. We owe Khadeja an apology. We swear it won’t happen again! 🙁

• She’s very protective of it. If it starts to move and she don’t like where its going she’ll reach up and pull it back and start licking it and taking care of it like she would one of her kittens.
• Central Mississippi T.A.I.L.S. organizer Jim Watson • On their cat, Emmy, who has adopted a squirrel. Not only has she adopted said squirrel, but the squirrel has even started purring. “Oh the squirrel, you can pick it up and pet it and it will start to purr just like a kitten does,” Watson said. Nothing more to add except for this: There’s video at the link. THERE’S VIDEO AT THE LINK. (Thanks Nick Snider for the link.) source

• Reader Emily johnson’s cat Larry had a recent spat of bad luck. He apparently decided to jump out of a broken window, so now he’s wearing a cone. If it makes you feel better, Larry, we’re wearing a cone right now, too. And it’s not a fashion choice.

• Ad people get to have more fun than you. See, a British ad firm working for IKEA got to fill one of their stores with a bunch of cats and tape it. Can you believe that this is someone’s job?Awww. (Thanks Andrew Ottoson) source

• 3 in four cats don’t mind control over lettin’ it all hang all willly-nilly source

• WHOO CATS! YEAH CATS! WHOO! Today is a day for the cat people of the world to come out of the woodwork while we bombard you with reader-submitted cat photos. (And our buddies at Cavalcade of Schlock bombard you with cat obscuro; no porn, but we’ve heard rumors of foodicide. We’ll be keeping you posted on their output throughout the day.) Since it’s the second year we’ve done it, we can call it “Second Annual” now. So let’s call it that! Hi, everyone, and welcome to the “Second Annual” Catstravaganza! WE LOVE CATS! WA-HOO! (And for our non-cat fans, go here, and you’ll see the blog without any of those stupid cats.) Still want to send us cat photos? Try these options:

• oneTweet them to us! Send us your cat photos via Twitpic or Yfrog. Then send us a tweet. Be sure to hashtag them as #catstravaganza.
• twoPost them to Facebook! Our Facebook page (like us yet?) accepts photos and videos, so feel free to submit your fancy feasts over there.
• threePrefer to keep them a little more private? Send them to us via our official e-mail address, [email protected]. We’ll throw them up.

The backstory behind Maya

• Hey there, here’s a photo of my cat, Maya, when she was a kitten. It’s just so awesome I want the whole world to see!
• Reader Chris Gorman • Regarding the awesomeness of his cat, Maya. And trust us. This cat lives up to the hype, looking ultra-dignified in the pic above, waiting for her moment in the sun. Here’s your moment, Maya. Savor it.

• This guy takes a lot of cat photos. But that’s OK, because he’s really freaking good at it. Between bag cat (above), his cat show photos, and whatever this guy is doing, he certainly knows how to capture some pretty awesome feline moments. source

• This slow-moving little guy was brought to our attention by Andrew Ottoson, who called Catstravaganza “the new Festivus.” It’s only fitting, then, that we have activities to match that postmodern holiday’s lineup. We think we need to make cat remakes of popular movies a big part of the whole Catstravaganza experience. We’d like to see a few kitties take on that still-in-progress “Arrested Development” movie. We’d love to imagine what a kitty Michael Cera would be like.