Building a career based on something that you love is the dream for many of us. It can be anything from flying planes to teaching kids or just getting to spend time surrounded by cats! If you’re looking for a job revolving around felines, you’ve probably thought of a few already. There’s veterinary medicine, a standard for all animal lovers, or you could work in an animal shelter.

Fortunately, many more jobs are dedicated to cats than just these two. The variety available enables you to utilize your other skills, whether it’s crafting or understanding feline body language. Browse through this list of jobs for cat lovers to find one that suits your interests and supports your love for cats.

Top 15 Jobs for Cat Lovers

1. Cat Behaviorist

Also known as cat whisperers, cat behaviorists are people who help cat owners solve feline behavioral problems. You don’t need to have a degree to become a cat behaviorist, but plenty of experience around cats of all shapes, sizes, and temperaments will help.

There are also certificates that you can get from organizations like the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. This isn’t essential, but it can help prove that you know what you’re doing, especially when you’re just starting.

As a cat whisperer, you’ll meet many cats. While you won’t be able to offer medical advice or diagnose and treat cats like veterinarians do, you can help cat owners manage common behavioral problems. You might even help a cat owner in need decide whether a trip to the veterinarian is necessary.

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2. Cat Café Worker or Owner

Cat cafés are steadily growing in popularity, and it’s no surprise. After all, what cat lover doesn’t love drinking their favorite beverage while enjoying the companionship of a purring feline? While cat cafés aren’t as widespread as the most recognizable names in the food industry, the locations are growing in number, and many places are looking for extra help. Check out your local cat café to see if they’re hiring.

If there isn’t one near you, you could start your own. Just know that it’s a great deal of work, and you’ll need funding, a business plan, a tasty menu, and the premises for it. Experience with working in a cafe and other food-related businesses will help significantly. Hire people who love cats, and make arrangements with local shelters to help promote adoption.

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3. Catnip Gardener

Cats adore catnip, and growing your own is one of the best ways to ensure that there are no pesticides used and that you always have a supply on hand for your cats. You’ll need to dry it yourself, but it’s a great way to keep fresh catnip on hand for when you need it.

There’s no need to use much either, so you can raise and sell catnip plants to other cat owners or sell the dried catnip. If you plan on making cat toys, you’ll have a free source of catnip to use.

If you have an outdoor garden patch where you grow your catnip, you might even find the neighborhood kitties take to visiting your yard more often. Catnip does best in warm, sunny climates, though, so if you live in a cold area, you might want to keep your plants indoors.

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4. Cat Photographer or Videographer

So, you love cats, and you adore taking pictures or filming everything that you can. Why not combine your two favorite things into a career? Whether you specialize in pet photography for clients or prefer to build your career on photoshoots with your cat, photos and videos are a great way to share the love.

The best part is that the photos will always put a smile on other cat lovers’ faces, whether you’re hired for a job or focus your talents on a blog or social media.

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5. Cat Sitter

At some point, all pet owners need someone trustworthy who loves cats as much as they do to look after their companions for a few days. As a cat sitter, you can work from your home or make regular trips to your client’s house if the cats that you look after are more comfortable on their home turf. You might also be asked to house-watch if the family that you are cat-sitting for is away for a few days.

If you don’t have cats of your own but know how to take care of them, being a cat sitter is the perfect way to get kitty cuddles. You don’t need any special qualifications either—just reliability and the know-how to take care of cats properly. Training in animal first-aid would also be ideal.

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6. Maker of Cat Furniture and Catios

There are many supplies that you’ll need as a cat owner, but some can be quite pricey. DIY cat furniture and catios are a growing trend, but not everyone has the skills, know-how, tools, and materials to build furniture. If you have woodworking expertise and know your way around the toolshed, many cat owners would love to hire you to make all sorts of cat supplies.

Making cat furniture also gives you the option to personalize your projects based on your clients’ needs. You can challenge yourself to design new furniture for all the cats that you meet or follow a plan to make your own signature pieces.

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7. Maker/Seller of Cat Toys/Treats

If you’re good at sewing, woodwork, or other crafts, DIYing cat toys is a good way to keep cats entertained. You can make all sorts of toys and accessories or bake cat-safe treats for your fellow cat lovers. Once they’re finished, you can sell your creations from your home or at farmer’s markets, craft fairs, and many other places.

For an extra challenge, try to come up with something new. If you have cats of your own, you can test all your new toy ideas first and get a feline stamp of approval before adding the new accessory or toy to your stock. Personalized accessories are also always highly sought after.

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8. Professional Groomer

Cats might spend most of their day grooming themselves, but plenty of them need help now and then. Sometimes, cat owners simply don’t have time during the week or aren’t quite brave enough to trim those sharp claws on their own. Maybe the cat is injured, obese, or getting old and can’t quite reach everywhere they need to.

As a professional cat groomer, you’ll get to meet all sorts of cats and spend all day giving them a spa treatment. You don’t need any qualifications either, and many pet grooming businesses are learn-as-you-go. Working for an experienced cat groomer for a while can give you the confidence to start your own business later.

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9. Shelter Worker

Many people are needed to work behind the scenes in shelters and rescues. Most of the work might be voluntary, but there are full-time, paid workers at many locations. Whether you get paid for the work or not, it’s a great way to work with animals, especially ones that need help finding loving homes. You can work in a shelter that’s dedicated to cats, start your own, or choose to work with other animals too.

While you help the cats find new homes, you can spend time giving them love and keeping them healthy and well-fed. You’ll also be able to make sure all the cats go to the most loving families available.

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10. Social Media Cat Celebrity

Many cat lovers can’t keep cats of their own because they don’t have the funds or their apartment doesn’t allow pets. Instead, they turn to the internet to look at everything cat related, from pictures to videos. This is why a growing trend on social media features pet-fluencers, who are owners of pets of all kinds that share snippets of their daily lives.

While popular feline celebrities might draw attention by being different, you can make your average kitty a social media star too. It might take time to build up a fanbase, but with cute pictures, funny videos, and plenty of cat-related fun, your budding feline star will have a social media following in no time at all!

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11. Veterinarian

The go-to favorite job for all animal lovers is becoming a veterinarian. You’ll need to do a great deal of work and studying, but you’ll be able to build a career afterward. You can work in a general veterinary hospital and treat all sorts of animals or specialize in cat medicine in dedicated cat clinics.

It takes a significant amount of work, but becoming a veterinarian also means you’ll surround yourself with like-minded people. Every cat owner and colleague you meet will adore cats just as much as you do!

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12. Veterinary Receptionist

Becoming a fully trained and licensed veterinarian or veterinary technician isn’t an easy task, and not everybody is cut out for the hard work or expense that it entails. Not doing well in school or not having the funding doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to work in a veterinary clinic, though.

Veterinary receptionists are just as important as fully trained vets and vet technicians, sometimes even more so. Receptionists help keep the clinic running smoothly and are the first people to deal with worried pet owners and their pets.

While some clinics do require a business degree or receptionist experience, many places will accept a high school diploma as a minimum. You will need to be friendly, cheerful, reassuring, and happy to talk to people, whether you work in a cat hospital or a general vet clinic.

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13. Veterinary Technician

The middle ground between a veterinary receptionist and a fully trained veterinarian is a veterinary technician. If you’re not quite people oriented enough to handle the front desk but don’t mind a few years of school to get the right qualifications, a veterinary technician job puts you in the perfect position to take care of the cats that need to stay at the clinic.

Veterinary technicians handle all the interim care that cats need at the clinic, complete lab tests, fill prescriptions, and much more. Since veterinary technicians work closely with the animals while they’re in the clinic, you will need to meet the qualification requirements that enable you to administer treatments, perform the necessary tests, monitor clinical signs, and assist with surgery.

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14. Pet Store Worker

Pet stores might get a bad reputation for supporting shady breeding practices like puppy mills, but there are plenty of stores that encourage adoption over shopping.

A pet store gives you the chance to supply cat owners with advice on the best supplies and maybe meet a few cats if they’re brave enough to accompany their owners inside. With experience under your belt, you could open a store of your own. As a pet store owner, you can decide whether you want to specialize in cats or include other pets too.

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15. Cat Writer

Most cat-related jobs mean interacting with cat owners too, but don’t worry if you’re a little less people oriented than cat oriented. There is one particular job that doesn’t require much human interaction at all.

Writing about cats is a fun way to share your love for all things feline. Find a cat-related blog that’s hiring writers, make your own, or look for cat magazines that are looking for submissions.  There are also fiction books if you have an idea for an adventurous cat character.

You might need to interact with an editor and meet deadlines, but writing about cats only needs a good grasp of grammar in whatever language you’re writing in and knowledge about cats.

Conclusion

Working with cats is every feline lover’s dream, but it can be daunting when the first options that spring to mind require a great deal of studying and hefty expenses. Fortunately, while veterinary medicine is still a favorite career, it’s not the only one out there. Whether you want an entry-level job with minimal requirements so you can learn on the go or want to combine your crafting hobby with your love for cats, we hope that this list has given you a few ideas.

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Featured Image Credit: Page Light Studios, Shutterstock