I'm here in Pittsburgh, doing tour stops with Morris the Cat. Right now, I'm at the office and Morris is at the hotel, probably having a party on the bed!
A regular tour day with Morris usually goes something like this:
We wake up very early because we'll have to do a TV or radio interview in the morning (it's important to let everyone know that Morris is in town). Then Morris goes back to the hotel to rest up for the busy day ahead.
Before his tour stops, he gets brushed down and spritzed with some of his favorite cologne, and then puts on what I call his "necklace," which is actually his collar with his 9Lives tag on it.
Then we'll have a driver come and pick him up. He goes inside his travel case, and off we go to the store to meet his fans.
Upon arrival, he takes a seat in his director's chair and waits for people to come and greet him.
We have great 9Lives giveaways with T-shirts, mugs and coupons. And people get to meet Morris. Sometimes he greets them with a paw or two when he is asked to do so. He has great "Paw-tographs" (a postcard with his picture and paw print on the back) that he gives out. We do about three retail tour stops a day.
Most importantly, when we do these retail store visits, Morris donates 1,500 dollars worth of 9Lives cat food in each city that he tours. In this case, he's donating it to the Rescue League here in Pittsburgh. Morris, being a former stray and shelter cat before he was rescued by 9Lives, never wants to forget shelter animals. In fact, a lot of his proceeds go back to the shelters, which I think is really fabulous.
Then Morris goes back to the hotel, has a rest and a big 9Lives dinner, and goes off to sleep.
