Cats are popular

William Yeung / CC

Cat and cat accessories are selling big thanks to a surge in pet adoption during the pandemic and rising spending on those animals. There are now 45.3 million households with at least one cat, up from 42.7 million last year. Cat related businesses are doing well. There are only 240 cat groomers nationwide accredited by the National Cat Groomers Institute, but the number of cat-grooming students enrolled this year is up 39.5 percent over 2021. The number of cat-sitting visits on the app Time to Pet is up 51.2 percent in 2022 compared to the same period in 2019.