Catgirl Week got me thinking about the good old days of the internet. Around the time I started Cat[girl]urday, there was a popular website called “Wilde Home for Wayward Catgirls.” The site contained the lore for a fictional private school for young nekomimi with nowhere else to go. Even though the site has been gone for nearly 20 years, its impact on the internet can still be felt.
The last snapshot of the Wilde Home for Wayward Catgirls I could find is from May 2, 2009, and it looks like the last update was made on December 16, 2006. The site was broken down into sections that made it feel like you were actually exploring the school. The staff and faculty all had their own lore, and there was even a School for Gifted Catboys and Beatrix Lapin’s Finishing School for Bunnygirls. The lore and fan base grew so large that it eventually inspired a role-playing game!
Sadly, in today’s social-media-driven internet, you don’t see websites like this nearly as often. Thankfully, while researching this post, I found that plenty of traces of the fandom still exist today.
Much to my surprise, the artist behind the site is still active in the art world. Sadly, due to personal reasons, she is currently not creating catgirl art. If you want to know the details, I’ll direct you to her own journal entry from a few years ago. There are also still some prints available from the good old days if you want to own a piece of this history. They are truly rare gems, especially since Bengman can no longer use Prismacolor pencils and ink due to medical reasons.
The Wilde Home for Wayward Catgirls really helped shape my love of catgirls and confirmed that catgirl fandom was a thing. Thank you, Bengman! Without you, this blog would not be what it is today.
So what do you think?