Nearly two years ago, The historic Cats Restaurant in Los Gatos quickly and quietly closed without much warning (see article in the Los Gatos Observer). One of the area's older buildings, it was constructed as a stage coach stop in the late 1800s, possibly around 1896.

Yesterday I was near the tavern, photographing Leo and Leona at the entrance to Poet's Canyon just steps away, and popped by old building to see what was going on with it.

To my surprise, it appeared that The Cats is being made ready to reopen. There were several trucks and workers in view and the parking lot sported new blacktop and parking stripes.

I could not find any news about a reopening, but perhaps some of the Live in Los Gatos readers might know what the story is. Your feedback is appreciated!

The Cats has served many functions over the years and is an area landmark. It would be great to see it open again.

The Cats Restaurant is located at 17533 Santa Cruz Highway, just past the downtown entrance to the freeway from South Santa Cruz Avenue.

Leo and Leona can be seen from this freeway exit too. For more on the two concrete cats, please visit this earlier post: How did Los Gatos get its cat logo?
Scroll down and enjoy slideshow too (just added).

PS November 2, 2008:  Today I received a call from Shelby, who tells me that 3 weeks ago or so she stopped by The Cats when she saw trucks there and spoke with the new owners. She says that they're targeting re-opening sometime this month. That's great news!

Let's be clear on something: squirrels, possums, skunks, racoons and other wildlife are not generally a problem in Los Gatos. Recently a mountain lion was seen on Cypress Way - and sometimes the big cats wander into suburbia. Those events constitute a problem. But by and large, the small furry animals that share our turf are not an issue.

I bring this up because I like to track who's finding "Live In Los Gatos", how they get here, what are the popular search terms, etc. It's all visible to you, too, if you are in the slightest bit interested. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and find the Site Meter button. Click on it. A whole world of info - probably much more than could possibly interest you - about how people find this spot lies in the pages beyond that portal.

What upset me today was seeing that one Google surfer found this site by asking about killing squirrels in Los Gatos. If you go through the Site Meter link and then look at the left sidebar where it says "Referrals" you will find one that reads as follows:

When I clicked on the Google search page, I saw that there seem to be aggressive squirrels in Palo Alto and people are thinking of extermination. Maybe it's beyond that and it's part of a plan. But as far as I know, there's NOTHING like that in Los Gatos.

That said, I just asked my husband, Jim Handy (who is a volunteer parks commissioner in Los Gatos) if there's anything about a plan to kill squirrels in Los Gatos. "No, but there's a problem with gophers at Oak Meadow Park", he informed me. What kind of problems? "Ankle turners..." Jim explained that people have been getting hurt tripping on gopher holes at the Town's Oak Meadow Park. Apparently there is a plan to poison gophers - at that one park.

It used to be against the law to use poison in parks in all cases. Apparently now, under heavy regulation, some use of poison is allowed. I can't say this makes me feel any better that it's a very guarded situation.

What about the historic but still timely Macabee Gopher Trap? It has been in production right here in Los Gatos for about a hundred years. Or perhaps it would be better if they would use a product like my old Saratoga High School friend Bob Bruno's "Gophernator" (or "Rodenator" since apparently it handles more than just gophers). Who ya gonna call?