About Cats About Town Tours
NYC history walks built around the cats that made the papers, worked the buildings, rode the ships, guarded the mail, and somehow disappeared from the usual city tours.
Our Story
Cats About Town started with a simple problem: New York's cat stories were everywhere in the old papers, and almost nowhere in the way the city tells its own history.
Co-founder Peggy Gavan spent years digging through 19th-century newspapers, city records, photographs, and odd little archive trails. She found firehouse cats, bridge cats, Wall Street mousers, ship cats, theater cats, postal cats, and apartment-house cats who were once famous enough to make the news. Those stories became books, articles, and eventually walking tours.
When Peggy partnered with Dan Rimada, the idea became a tour company: real NYC history, researched properly, told through the animals who were there.
What Sets Us Apart
Archive-first stories
The routes are built from old newspapers, records, photos, and archive trails, not made-up folklore.
Small groups
Public tours are capped at 12 guests so you can hear the guide, ask questions, and move at a comfortable pace.
Only in New York
Bridge cats, bar cats, firehouse cats, ship cats, postal cats, apartment-house cats. The city is full of them once you know where to look.
As Featured In
Meet the Team
Meet the people behind the walks.
Peggy Gavan
Co-Founder & Lead Guide
Licensed NYC tour guide, historian, and author of The Cat Men of Gotham and The Bravest Pets of Gotham (Rutgers University Press). Peggy holds a journalism degree from Syracuse University and a Master of Science in Health Communications from Boston University. She serves on the steering committee for the future Cat Museum of New York City.
Dan Rimada
Co-Founder & Operations
Co-founder of Cats About Town Tours. Dan leads operations and marketing, working behind the scenes to build partnerships, shape the brand voice, and keep the tours running smoothly.
DeeAnne Gorman
Licensed Tour Guide
DeeAnne Gorman is a licensed New York City sightseeing guide, poet, and board member of the Greater Astoria Historical Society. The daughter of a veterinarian, she grew up surrounded by animals and is the proud adoptive mom to Sammy, a tortoiseshell from Animal Care Centers of NYC.
Marie Carter
Licensed Tour Guide
Marie Carter has been a New York City tour guide for over a decade and is the author of three books, including Mortimer and the Witches: A History of Nineteenth-Century Fortune Tellers. Originally from Scotland, she grew up in a home filled with cats and now lives in Astoria, Queens.
Ernesto Diaz
Licensed Tour Guide
Ernesto Diaz is a licensed New York City tour guide who leads Cats About Town routes.
Join Us on a Tour
Public tours are capped at 12 guests so people can hear, ask questions, and actually enjoy the walk. 2026 dates are open.
Book Your Tour