EL CAJON, Calif. — Looking for something to do this Cinco de Mayo? Cat lovers, look no further: there’s an a-meow-zing event that will allow you to celebrate by hanging with adorable feline friends.

“Cinco de Meow” hosted by the El Cajon shelter, Friends of Cats, Inc., is back next weekend. It will be the first time the annual open-house and fundraiser event will be held since the pandemic, giving cat lovers and families alike the purrr-fect way to celebrate the holiday.

“We’re just excited to have it back,” the shelter manager at Friends of Cats, Cora-Anne Zwartjes, told FOX5SanDiego.com. “Finally being able to return to normalcy is really exciting for us.”

This will be the 11th year that Friends of Cats has held the Cinco de Meow event, which Zwartjes says is their biggest fundraiser event of the year.

The main attraction at the event is the open-house and shelter tour, brining folks back to visit with the kitties and see how the shelter cares for them.

“The way that we are set up is none of our cats are caged, they live in big communal rooms,” Zwartjes said, “so you can go in and sit down and just have a lap full of cats at any time.”

Cinco de Meow will also feature a cat boutique, shelter tours, a feline food fiesta fundraiser, adoptable kitty rooms, a silent auction, a Mexican buffet and refreshments.

Friends of Cats is a non-profit, no-kill shelter that has been open since 1929, housing both adoptable and sanctuary kitties.

Sanctuary cats, Zwartjes said, include older cats that were surrendered by owners that could no longer care of them, as well as kitties with behavioral issues or medical conditions.

Currently, 261 cats are roaming throughout the property, according to the shelter. About 65% of these cats are sanctuary.

“A lot of the (cats) live out their lives here,” Zwartjes said. “The love attention … They enjoy having everybody fawn all over them.”

Friends of Cats’ Cinco de Meow event will be going from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday May 6 at the shelter, located on 15587 Olde Highway 80 in El Cajon. Overflow parking is available at the Summers Past Farm across the street.