LOS ANGELES, June 8 — They arrived wearing whiskers and ears. They purred over new litter fragrances, and pawed through the cat clothes. Hissing? Well, the line was long for that keynote speech: “Photographing Cats — It Looks Easy, But It’s Not.”

Debunking the cat lady myth, it turns out, is easier said than done.

This was the first CatCon, billed as a celebration of the stylish side of cat fancying. More than 10,000 people crowded into a downtown convention hall here over the weekend to shop for cat-centric merchandise (for people, mostly), have their pictures taken with celebrity Internet cats (such as Lil Bub, famous for her dwarfism), and attend cat-focused panels and speeches (“Goodbye Dowdy, Hello Gorgeous: Debunking the Cat Lady Myth”).

There were also “caticure” stations, where Aveda technicians gave visitors manicures and decorated fingernails with cat stickers.

“My goal is to break down the stereotype of the weird cat person,” said Susan Michals, a cable television producer who organised CatCon in her spare time. “There is a whole world of cat lovers out there. We’re not all a bunch of ‘Grey Gardens’ Miss Havishams.”

It was only a matter of time before the cats got a con. In recent years there has been MerCon, for fans of mermaids; BronyCon, for people who like My Little Pony; and a Lincoln convention devoted to Abraham Lincoln enthusiasts. The model is Comic-Con, the annual comics, film and television jamboree that draws 130,000 people to its flagship city, San Diego, and similarly huge crowds in New York and other places.

“It was high time cats had one,” Michals said.

Last year’s Hello Kitty Con in Los Angeles didn’t count, she said

In the small world of feline entrepreneurs, love of cats seems to trump profit. Tickets to CatCon cost US$25 (RM94), with part of the funds going to FixNation, a non-profit neutering organisation. Corporate sponsors included Rachael Ray-branded cat food and the cable network Animal Planet.

Michals, who owns a Maine coon, Miss Kitty Pretty Girl, got the idea for a cat convention after organising a cat-themed art show last year; she plans to reprise the show this fall. She said CatCon was also an attempt to take the seeming mass adoration of cats on the Internet and create a community offline, much like the Internet Cat Video Film Festival has done since its creation in 2012 by the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis.

She may have gotten more than she bargained for. When the CatCon doors opened at 9am Saturday morning, roughly 700 people were waiting with narrowed eyes in a line that stretched around the block. The bathrooms, which were sponsored by a low-dust, exotic-scented cat litter, quickly became gridlocked. A jam-packed cat adoption area had to be barricaded by benches to limit the flow of people.

Brothers Greg and Andrew Wade at the booth for their clothing company, Blunderpuss, during CatCon in Los Angeles, June 8, 2015. — Monica Almeida/The New York Times

A ban on personal pets — no cats on leashes — rankled some attendees, but the cats would have been trampled in the teeming merchandise village, where about 100 vendors plied their wares. Besides, there was plenty of live cat to go around: Lil Bub, whose YouTube videos have been viewed 27 million times, did a meet and greet. So did Pudge, an exotic shorthair with 373,000 Facebook likes.

Conspicuously missing, however, was the famous Grumpy Cat, who comes with an entourage and a hefty appearance fee. Despite having her own brand of flavored coffees and other merchandise, she was apparently not welcome.

“I didn’t want cats being held up like pieces of meat,” Michals said.

Meow.

Michals said vendors were selected based on the stereotype-busting theme.

“I said no to a lot of disgusting junk,” she said. “Not everyone likes schlock and awe.”

Any Los Angeles event worth its salt has celebrities. So Mayim Bialik, the actress known for “The Big Bang Theory” and “Blossom,” was on hand Saturday to encourage cat adoption through PetSmart Charities.

She had read her CatCon script.

“This event is a great opportunity to change the face of the crazy cat lady,” Bialik said. “It’s still one of those stereotypes that needs to be demolished. We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go.”

But enough of the serious stuff: Just what is the best way to photograph a cat?

At her session Saturday, Joann Biondi, a Miami photographer known for her portraits of her clothed cat, Lorenzo, gave away a few of her tricks.

For instance, to get Lorenzo to look at the camera, Biondi said she tapes a live gecko to her forehead.

“It wriggles and gets his attention,” she explained.

Patience is crucial. Sometimes she spends 40 hours on one picture, she said.

“The important thing,” she continued, “is to try and catch your cat in a moment of dignity.

“This is not a silly circus act.” — New York Times