Emily Miethner grew up with animals — lots of them. Dogs, rabbits, Guinea pigs, hedgehogs, snakes, lizards, tarantulas.

But never a cat.  Her parents were allergic.

In fact, she didn’t get her first cat until she was in her late 20s.   

When she did, it changed her entire life.

An Unexpected Addition

Though Miethner grew up with animals (at least for the early part of her life; after her parents divorced, the animals went away), she — and her husband (who’d only ever had a bird as a child) — never seriously considered adding a pet to their family.

“I really know the responsibility of being a pet guardian, so I didn’t take it lightly,” she tells Keeping It Pawsome.

But one fateful Labor Day on New York’s Long Island in 2017 changed everything.

While visiting her husband’s family, they received a group text that his aunt had found a kitten in her backyard. Everyone was invited to come see it.

Miethner and her husband shrugged their shoulders. It was a five-minute ride; what the heck?

Within minutes of arriving, his aunt had plopped the kitten in their laps and proclaimed them cat parents.

Had it not been Labor Day, Andie (the kitten) might have ended up at a shelter. Instead, Miethner and her husband took him home to their apartment in New York City.

And there was no going backwards once Andie had made himself at home.

“We just became cat people hard and fast,” Miethner says.

An Unfair Perception

But Miethner and her husband are no ordinary cat parents. Both are perennial entrepreneurs.

When they adopted Andie, they also adopted the entire cat parent community. And they immediately began looking for what that community was missing.

Within six months, they’d come up with the idea of a cat backpack.

“We knew backpacks and harnesses would give people a way to do more with their cats,” she says.  

---

Learn more about how to leash train your cat.

---

A motivating factor for Team Miethner when choosing what to invest their time and energy in was the desire to change the perception that people have of what it means to be a cat parent.

“Especially for people who have no knowledge of what it’s like to have a cat, but just being aware of the general cultural perception that cat ownership is easy. They just sit around and you don’t have to do anything with them.”

But it’s not true, she says.

“You can do more with your cats and we wanted to be a part of changing that.”

Like all social creatures, cats need play and stimulation.

“Taking them outside, safely, is one way to get them extra stimulation,” says Miethner.

Safe & Practical

One of Miethner and her husband’s main goals with the cat backpack was to provide cat parents a way to bring their cats outside safely.

They live in New York City, so letting their cats out to roam about was never an option. (And even for people living in the suburbs, giving their cats free access to the outdoors is never safe.)

With the cat backpack, cat parents can take their cats out and give them a clear view of everything that’s happening — on a walk, a bike ride or a hike in the woods.

(For people with even more adventurous cats, Miethner’s company also makes cat harnesses and leashes.)

The backpacks can also double as carriers when you have to take your cat out, like to the vet or, in a worst-case scenario, to evacuate your home.

“If you need to get out of the house or your apartment with you cat, you can grab the backpack and have your hands free to grab other stuff.”

Miethner also emphasizes that while much of their Instagram account or their website is full of pictures of cats on grand adventures to national parks, the backpacks are just as much for bringing your cat along when you walk your dog. Or as a way for your cat to join you for a picnic in your own backyard with the kids.

“A lot of people get intimidated. I’m not going to national parks with my cat so this isn’t for me, but no one should feel that way.”

Several Options

Your Cat Backpack offers three styles of backpack, including one Jackson Galaxy-branded option.

Because Miethner and her husband are driven just as much by the need to problem as anything else, they put months of research and development into their newest backpack, the Navigator.

For instance, the most commonly feedback about the original “The Fat Cat” backpack was that it needed a waist strap and additional pockets — both of which were incorporated into the design of the Navigator.

---