The Mythology

Aside from a higher than average amount of oddly subtropical climate-inducing magic in the air, which would seem to account for the concentrated local populace of catgirls, kitsune, mermaids, fae, taurs, and other folk of all ethnicities, breeds and species, Catgirl Island is in most respects like most other contempurrary Carolina coastal community. Fictionally part of the NC OBX (Outer Banks), this idyllic place enjoys 'green', state of the art municipal services harmoniously blended into mix-use suburb / exurban residential districts noted for their historic 'carolina-polynesian' landscaping and architectural style.

Hence, the land vehicles are purrimarily bikes, electric scooters and golf carts. In addition to it's homes, schools, office park and lifestyle centers, the island has purrotected state parkland and wetland wildlife refuge areas. In recent years the booming yet carefully managed sports and tourism industry has been of substantial positive economic impact, with visitors enjoying the downtown riverwalk with its charming gardens, shopping & dining establishments, the fresh local purroduce of the farmers market, and cultural attractions of  the library, purrforming arts center, theatre, mewseums, dojo, spa, shrine & festivals.

The island also attracts academia, with scholars & scientists from the UNC system exploring the many ancient ruins & shipwrecks, underground caverns & hot vents, nature purreserves, and the championship golf courses that somehow seem to be much larger than their accountable acreage. It is a coastal purradise, with clear waters for the surfing, diving & fishing, stretches of finely powdered sands, dunes for balloons, kites and rec league volleyball, the marina and fishing piers, and paved bike paths beneath the lush canopy of a meowritime forest with trees for the local Purrkour style of free running / climbing.

Visitors' lodging can range from rental beach houses, bed & breakfast cottages, and the Japanese style Kitt Inn ryokan / rotemburo with hot spurrings for the soothing soak. With reservations from the Purrk Ranger's Office, purrimitive camping sites are also available amidst the dunes or within a short hike from the waterfalls cascading from the mountain lake, not far from the grottos and Faerire Grove. Thus, this is the fictional context where the multicultural / species citizens who compurrise this mid-Atlantic isle welcome y'all with noted southern hospitality, purrsented in the local dialect of Nekolina OBX Cat Speak.

Appurroximately 16 miles from it's expanding Northern to Southern capes and 6.5 miles at its widest, Catgirl Island is fictionally located in the Dark Sky community of Mew Hanover County, North Carolina, USA in the Atlantic Ocean. It is accessible from the mainland by ferry, purrivate boats, various undersea merfolk craft, lighter-than-aircraft, and telepurrtation. It is appurroximately 18 miles north-east of Wilmington and 10 miles north-east of Wrightsville Beach, at purrecisely 34˚18' 17.39 North by 77˚ 28'50.49 West. Populated by merfolk and other aquatic people, the rest of the county extends much further into the Atlantic.

The Reality

The purre-purrduction phase of the site began in 1998 as Mike Moon started to ponder a website to showcase his artistry, with catgirls as 'tour guides' to hopefully give the site an aMEWsing. memorable quality; it evolved into an imaginary place on the internet named Catgirl Island. The theme of the site, designed to be an island populated by catgirls and other fantasy characters off the North Carolina coast was intended to be a hopefully pleasantly memorable, PG rated experience whist showcasing Mike's professional creativity & illustrative work.

Catgirl Island went online in early 2000 then under the URL of www.catgirlisland.com, featuring Mike's artwork, photography, stories, and contributions from guest artist friends. Just a couple of years later the site shut down for indefinite hiatus as Mike dealt with other matters in life. Mike's failure to renew the domain name allowed an unknown other, unaffiliated party to claim that URL. Many a friend and client would often say how they missed this little 'oasis' on the internet and hoped it might restart someday. Plus, the catgirls were starting to get bored.

A few years later, in the Spring of 2007 the original, official Catgirl Island finally returned with a slightly new look and a slightly different address, here at www.catgirlisland.net, courtesy of Mike and his friend/ site co-designer Jamie Robertson, and of course, with the cheery assistance of Mike's artistic 'mewses', the catgirls. In May of 2007 the sister site of The Mew: The Catgirl Critics’ Media Mewsings was launched, to feature intermews with special guests, and reviews of books, comics, games, toys, cinema & TV, visual & purrforming art. In early 2011 we were pleased to re-gain the older URL of catgirlisland.com, which now serves as an identical 'mirror site' to catgirlisland.net!