Circus Cats of Chicago

Meet the Acro-Cats…Chicago’s only trained domestic cat show! Our fantastic felines will amuse and amaze as they ride skateboards, roll barrels, ring bells, push carts, walk the high wire, climb ropes, jump through hoops, and more! These cats even play in a band! Meet the ‘Rock-Cats’…a trio of talented felines on drums, guitar and piano. The ‘Acro-Cats’ have appeared on 190 North, WGN, America’s Got Talent, CBS and more. Don’t miss your chance to meet them live and in Purrson. Produced by Samantha Martin.

TWO SHOWS ONLY: Saturday, October 11, 2008 at 4pm and 6pm. Tickets are $10; Rated G. More information on "CIRCUS CATS OF CHICAGO":

A PURRFORMANCE LIKE NO OTHER! Samantha Martin, a Chicago based animal trainer, began her career as an entertainer and trainer with a troupe of trained rats that performed at various nightclubs in Chicago before branching out to multiple national television appearances including a trip to Rome for a TV appearance. As her private zoo expanded so did her range of trained animals. Her work on the award winning documentary "’Natural History of the Chicken", led to an appearance with her trained chickens on The Tonight Show. Samantha’s animals have appeared on Country Fried Videos, Pet Star, Animal Planet, PBS, WGN, Planets Funniest Animals and many other shows.

While Samantha has experience with animals of all types, she has always felt a special bond with cats. Her home and business reflect that. With 24 domestic cats and a serval named Caesar residing with her, she has turned a large portion of her building into a two story, indoor and outdoor cat habitat providing the cats with a vast space to play, sun and relax. She believes in the importance of providing stimulation to the cats and has found training to be a positive and enriching way to interact with her felines. The experience led her to develop her hour long Acro-Cat show that has been performed at pet expos, libraries, galleries and other venues nationwide. While all the cats are trained to perform basic tricks and agility, the cats that perform publicly are the cats that enjoy the experience. Several of the Acro-Cats were rescues that were bottle-raised by Samantha and found their way into her troupe of performing felines.

The Acro-Cats perform a variety of entertaining tricks, from riding a skateboard, jumping through hoops, feats of agility and they even have a three piece all cat band called The RockCats. The trio consists of a piano player, guitarist and drummer who perform a feline jam session that pleases audiences of all ages.