Tabbies, calicos, and bengals — oh my! Hundreds turn out for Somerville cat tour.

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The tour is an example of urban animal safaris that have become popular in cities across the country in recent years.

SOMERVILLE — They slink across porches, they watch from windows, they lay in wait in the yards ready to pounce (or more likely, ready to be lavished with attention).

And nearly a thousand people bundled up against the chilly afternoon weather Saturday in order to join a “cat tour” and catch a glimpse of them. It was an extraordinary turnout, according to event organizer Tandem Veterinary Clinic.

“We thought, we do so many events for the dogs. So let’s have one day where we go out for the cats, right?” said Nick Jacobs, a 23-year-old manager with the clinic.

Attendees gathered in Tandem’s parking lot, nursing steaming cups of coffee as they waited for their tour group to leave. Some wore leopard-print pants or button-ups patterned with feline silhouettes. Almost all of them wore brightly-colored plastic cat ears—courtesy of Tandem volunteers, who handed them out to guests along with small maps of the route.

“If you have a purple sticker, say meow!” Jacobs yelled through a megaphone, prompting a small group to gather behind their guide. “The purple tour is now leaving!”

The route kicked off at Tandem’s storefront on Beacon Street, snaking by 16 households within a half-mile radius before finishing at Perry Park on Washington Street. At each stop, the tour guide pointed out cats perched in windows or curled up on front stoops. Guests “oohed” and “ahhed” and snapped pictures on their phones.

At one house, a huge poster reading “LOOK UP!” was taped to the fence: two cats sat on a sill high above. At another house, tourists crowded around a tuxedo cat named Bart, who was curled contentedly in the lap of his owner, Amelia Crofoot. “Look at his little suit!” someone from the crowd cooed.

Tandem came up with the idea for a cat tour after seeing posts online about a similar event in Minneapolis, Jacobs explained. They hosted their inaugural tour last November, and the idea quickly caught on around the rest of the Boston area.

The tour is an example of urban animal safaris that have…

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