#1
Bored Panda reached out to Molly Hodgdon, the person behind the account of "Cats of Yore". First, we asked her about how the whole thing started, and here's what she told us.
"It really started out of love for cats and history! Not trying to build a following or anything like that. I've always been a cat lover and I love feeling connected to other cat lovers throughout the centuries through art and photography. I was frustrated by a lot of the historical image accounts on Twitter that are just bots or people who do image searches but never provide any additional information - or worse, false information. So I'd see a fantastic cat photo but I'd have to do extensive image searches to find out where it came from and/or debunk the dumb fake 'facts' that accompanied it."
"I thought instead of complaining I should just start one for myself and if other people found it eventually, that would be great. If not, that was fine too. If you go back to the beginning it was just months and months of me posting tons of images with museum links and absolutely no interaction or followers whatsoever. I didn't use hashtags or spam anyone or follow tons of people trying to grow the account. It really is a labor of love, not a ploy for Twitter success because I thought 'Hey, the internet loves cats so I'm gonna exploit that'."
What's interesting, is that Hodgdon actually has an archive full of cat pictures that she keeps adding to as she often finds them in places like flea markets and yard sales.
"I have a collection of dozens and dozens (hundreds, maybe? Not sure) of vintage cat photos and postcards from all over the world. I pick through flea markets, yard sales, thrift stores, and scour online sources for them and keep them in big photo albums - the old-fashioned kind with black pages and little adhesive photo corners. I posted a photo where you can see part of it here. It's the kind of thing that I didn't usually tell anyone about or show anyone because it's so boring - I mean, it's absolutely wonderful to me, but most people will just nod politely and look for the nearest exit if I tried to show it to them. That's one of the great things about Cats of Yore, I've found this community of people who get as excited about dusty old cat photos as I do."
#6
Given how many pictures Molly has collected over the years, we were wondering if she had any favorites. The owner of the Twitter page was quick to share, "Hard to pick, but some favorites from my personal collection are:
A lady named Fay annoying her cats with unsolicited affection.
#8
"Cats Of Yore" is an account dedicated solely to cat images (as well as occasional humans in the pictures with the cats), but we couldn't help but wonder why Molly didn't choose to share historic pictures of other pets like dogs.
"I've always loved cats. My parents love cats and kitties are very present all throughout our family photo albums. Everyone has a favorite animal, like dolphins, pandas, tigers, etc. It just happens that I'm lucky enough to get to live with my favorite animal and see them every day. I also love dogs and reptiles and other pets! And other animals in general - I'm vegan and support several farm sanctuaries, I love pigs, cows, goats, turkeys, all of them. But cats will always be closest to my heart."
Molly not only shares the historic and fascinating images of cats but also uses her social media page to raise money for animal shelters.
"At first it was purely about celebrating these images and the history behind them, but as my follower count grows, I've also started inserting a little more of myself while still maintaining 99% of the focus on old images. I've used social media to raise over $20,000 for animal shelters over the years and if I can use Cats of Yore to contribute to that I'm certainly going to do it."
"My other goal is to promote 'less adoptable' pets. My cats have a virus called FIV that is widely misunderstood and results in these cats being put down even though they can live long, healthy lives. So it's really important to me that I advocate for them and for the other shelter animals that get left behind because they're older or have medical or behavioral challenges. So basically I don't have plans to personally monetize or write a book or anything, just a bunch of totally insufferable do-gooder stuff."
#14
#15
Lastly, we wanted to find out a little bit more about Molly herself as well as her two cats!
"There's not much to tell about me. I'm 45 and a freelance writer in Vermont. My cats are amazing, though. Both of them came from rough backgrounds and have chronic health challenges beyond the FIV so they need daily medications and frequent vet visits, yet despite all that they are so sweet and happy. They love me, they love each other, they love playing, they love snacks, they're just little supernovas of joy even after everything they're been through. That resilience amazes and inspires me. Francie is purring in my lap as I type this and Fergus is curled up beside us. It's a totally mundane scene that plays out every day but it fills me with gratitude and contentment. That's what cats do for humans, they've graced us with beauty, comedy and comfort for thousands of years and it's amazing!"
#16
#18
