If you see your cat as your child, I completely understand. It doesn’t matter how old my little guy gets, I will always consider him to be a precious, tiny baby. But even our children grow up at some point and have to go out into the real world to get jobs. And yes, even our furry friends can do the same!

The Cats With Jobs account on X has been around since 2020 and has been working hard to share photos of all of the employed felines out in the world. Obviously, these kitties aren’t actually required to work 40 hours a week, and I don’t think any of them are receiving paychecks. But they do look adorable in their offices and work attire, so it’s no surprise that over 2 million people have followed along to see their pics shared on X!

To learn more about Cats With Jobs, we got in touch with the creator of the popular account, who was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. First, we wanted to know how this page came about.

"It started during the first major COVID lockdown. I was looking for a side-project to work on, and a friend gave me the idea of starting a 'gimmick page,'" the creator shared. "I started with Translated Cats - which is still going strong. On it, I post pictures of cats with Machine/AI translated captions."

"Eventually I started up a second page, called 'Socially Distanced Cats' (this was at the start of COVID after all), but it got no real traction. I then had the idea to transform the page into working cats, and almost immediately it went through the roof in terms of popularity," the creator continued.

We were also curious what kinds of careers the account's creator believes cats would thrive in. "Aside from the obvious role of mousers, I've found cats are best at being themselves - at just chilling and providing comfort to surrounding humans by their very presence," they shared. "I think this is why they work so well as shop pets. If you go in a shop and see a cat, all of a sudden it makes you warm up to the place."

As far as where the photos of working kitties come from, the creator says they used to grab them from anywhere around the internet. "[But] these days, I try to put the extra bit of effort in to work out where the post comes from, so that I can link to the OP," they noted.

"If the OP is also on X, I'll reach out and ask for permission via DM or replies. I've cultivated some great relationships with the people posting this content up in the first place, and it wouldn't be fair if a larger page like mine came along and stole their thunder," they explained. "Sometimes this means deleting viral posts in order to repost it with attribution, or in the form of a 'Quote Tweet', but I don't really mind."

We also wanted to know if the creator of Cats With Jobs had any favorite photos that they had ever shared. "I'm really partial to the Thai Facebook cat community," they revealed. "There's a constant stream of cute, memorable and funny content, which often translates well to the Cats With Jobs remit. An example of this is the cat 'Bong Bong' who is often posed wearing colorful outfits at well-stocked market stalls."

Working cats are so popular that X isn’t the only platform where you can find them. The Cats With Jobs subreddit is another place that’s dedicated to providing representation to all of the kitties out there who work hard to support their families. It’s not easy to beat the lazy, freeloader allegations that are often thrown towards cats. But these kitties are dedicated to the cause! 

With over 1.3 million members, r/Catswithjobs is a beautiful collection of kitties in ties, cats at computers, kittens working as security guards and more. We all know that cats are incredibly curious creatures, but apparently, they can be amazing employees as well!

To learn more about these employed kitties, we reached out to the moderator team at r/Catswithjobs, and lucky for us, ParliamentOfCraters was kind enough to answer a few of our questions. They shared that this subreddit has been around for an impressive 7 years, though they've only been on the mod team for two.

We were also curious what kinds of posts have been popping up in the group recently. "Currently, we are seeing a lot of athletes and Olympians, which is only to be expected," ParliamentOfCraters says. "It varies. Cats often have jobs in stores or work from home."

I, for one, would love to see more cathletes in my feed!

We also asked the moderator if they had any favorite posts that have been shared in the subreddit. "A recent post I like is this one," they shared. "Our top post of all time is about a cat with an actual, real job and I enjoyed that one."

According to ParliamentOfCraters, this community never gets boring. "This is a fun subreddit to be a part of," they shared. "Reddit is home to many cat-themed subreddits that are quite specific in their topics such as r/catsstandingup or r/touchthafishy. Cats seem to lend themselves quite well to highly specific topics, and that is awesome."

The moderator also believes it's important to make sure all of the content in Cats With Jobs stays on brand. "For our subscribers and visitors: Please do not hesitate to report posts that are inappropriate, for example if they're just cute and not about a 'cat with a job' or if they are made by spambots," they shared. "It takes all of us together to keep the subreddit of high quality and everyone's contribution is appreciated! We love all our commenters, voters, posters, and that indeed also includes people who help us moderate by reporting bad posts."

We’re big fans of cats with jobs here at Bored Panda, so much so that this isn’t the first time we’ve featured photos of them! But did you know that it actually is possible for cats to be hired to do jobs in real life? To find out more about what exactly a "working cat" is, we got in touch with Angela Speed, Vice President of Marketing & Communications at the Wisconsin Humane Society.

"Working cats, also referred to as barn cats, are independent, under-socialized and typically arrive as strays or outdoor cats," Angela shared. "They prefer to strongly limit their interactions with people, and they get extremely stressed when confined."

"These cats cannot be house pets but thrive in a 'working' environment where they can patrol a barn, stable, outbuilding, shed, or even a warehouse," Angela explained. "They get to live a fulfilling life with a family who cares for them, and their families get a rodent-free property! Their main job is to deter rodents from food sources on agricultural properties or warehouses without the use of chemicals or rodenticide. They are also quite effective at entertaining the horses, cows, sheep, and pigs."

We were also curious to know why cats might want to seek employment. "The Wisconsin Humane Society serves many clients in rural communities, and we know families already have cats on their farms," Angela noted. "With our Working Cat Program, because the cats are spayed/neutered, vaccinated, FeLV tested, and microchipped, it helps to control outdoor cat populations and ensure they are monitored and kept healthy."

"The cats whose resumes are perfect for the Working Cat Program would not be successful in an indoor home environment (they are not fans of humankind), so it also saves the lives of cats who couldn’t be traditionally placed in a home," the expert added.

Finally, we wanted to know what role humans play in taking care of these kitties with jobs. "Adopters of working cats provide shelter, daily food/water, and veterinary care as needed," Angela told Bored Panda. "For the first couple weeks after adoption, they keep them confined to a specific area, so the cats can acclimate to their new digs."

Are you feeling inspired to work harder today after seeing all of these kitties killing it at their jobs, pandas? We hope you’re enjoying scrolling through this list, and remember to keep upvoting your favorite cats. Then, if you’d like to see adorable photos of even more employed kitties, we’ve got another list of cats with jobs right here!