UPDATE: Craigslist Posting Offering Up Your Dream Cat Apartment is a Delightful Hoax

(Click image to enlarge)

I originally posted this ridiculously amusing Craigslist posting for a D.C.-area cat-friendly summer sublet late last week, but it was subsequently eaten by Blogger in last week's outage.

Fortunately, I can re-post it now with a timely update, courtesy of dcist, who have brought the story to its obvious conclusion by confirming that the ad was indeed a hoax (and a charming one, at that). The original poster, Fred Decatt, (a man! take that everyone who assumed it was a "crazy cat lady"!) updated his personal blog on Friday, with an exposé of the incident, which started out as an experiment to see why it's so difficult to find a decent summer sublet in D.C.

Cousin Garth and Horatio

Decatt's post also includes some of the more humorous exchanges he had with people who emailed him expressing interest in the apartment, along with his silly responses, which in once case involved a list of "screening questions" including, "All 16 cats decide they want to be petted/sit on you at the same time. How do you divide your attentions?" He also sent the same respondent the amazing (fake) picture above of his "Cousin Garth" holding Horatio the "friendly, mild-mannered" cat.

It's fun to note that the "16 cat sublet" was not Decatt's first foray into Craigslist "tomfoolery." He also garnered a similar response last year, when he tried to sell a snake named "Hissers" on the online classified site.

The worst part about this whole thing is coming to terms with the fact that the three-month long Danish Cat Convention doesn't really exist.

Original Craigslist Ad:

For sublet, June 3rd - August 25th. 1 BR in a 2BR apartment in Dupont circle. Furnished, all utilities included.

I will be away for the summer in Denmark attending the summer-long Danish Cat Convention. You will share the apartment with 16 well mannered cats and 2 Roombas. The cats will occupy the other bedroom, and the roombas will be on patrol to help keep the hair situation under control. I will ask that you refill the cats' automated food dispensers once a week, and clean the Roomba filters every three days or so. Below is a brief description of the housecatmates:

Polly - shy, quiet, tabby
Bitnum - playful, clawy
Lightning - slow, old
Lighting II - slow, young
Bebop - paranoid, jumpy
Cappy - sneaky, grouchy
Apina - knowledgeable, soft
Grobor - Incessant, loquacious
Kyle - stylish
Leesha - aged, engaged
Somtorious - idle
Gleebok - green-tinted
Horatio - friendly, mild-mannered
Bananana - a little off
Hoppy - jumpy
Duran - pensive

Roombas:
Gregor - Robotic, kitcheny
Sandra - Robotic, hallway-y

Via Craigslist / dcist (c/o OldCatsRule) / Fred Decatt's blog