MICMAO WORLD

Mic-Mic & Mao-Mao

Who are we

Mic-Mic and Mao-Mao is a Croatian brand born from a love for animals, creativity, and the desire to create something useful and lasting through their own work. Behind the names Mic and Mao stands a married couple, Željko and Danijela, who were brought together by their love for cats and are parents to a son named Dominik.

Željko holds a master's degree in criminology and has worked in the Criminal Police Department of the Zagreb Police Administration since 2005. From a young age, he enjoyed working in his father's workshop and making various things. The idea to make scratching posts came about when they adopted a cat, as he wanted a high-quality and stable scratching post, so he decided to make it himself. In 2012, the hobby became a business under the name Mao-Mao, and the first orders started coming in.

Danijela graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb. Since 2012, she has been teaching students in mathematical-analytical subjects (mathematics, statistics, accounting, and others). She is currently studying computer science at Juraj Dobrila University of Pula and is involved in programming.

In 2017, she launched an initiative called Mic-Mic, where she published stories about cats she had rescued from the streets.

Mic-Mic and Mao-Mao became one in 2020 when Mic-Mic ordered a scratching post from Mao-Mao. What started as a story about rescued animals and handmade scratching posts has now grown into several interconnected projects that share the same values.

Our brands

MicMao

Design and production of cat furniture, climbing frames, scratching posts, children's furniture, and other designer products.

MicMao Digital

Programming, web development, and digital project creation.

CATedra

Edu-platform for students offering tutoring in mathematics, statistics, and computer science/programming courses.

How did MicMao come about?

MicMao was born from our acquaintance, shared values, and love for animals.
Although we come from different fields, it is precisely the combination of our knowledge that became the foundation of everything we create today. Through years of education, work, and the development of our own skills, we have learned to connect creativity, technical knowledge, product manufacturing, and digital solutions into one whole.

Together we develop ideas, design, and make key decisions.
With his experience and talent, Željko transforms ideas into handmade products.
Danijela develops the digital part of the brand - from designing and creating the webshop, developing web projects, and creating and managing an educational platform, to content, marketing, and a strategy that connects all parts of the MicMao world into one entity.

What started as a love for animals and a desire to help abandoned cats has, over time, grown into several connected projects that share the same vision – to create something useful, high-quality, and authentic.

Rambo – The Cat That Started It All

Rambo was not just another cat. He was our greatest teacher, a fighter, and the inspiration behind everything we do today.

Read Rambo's story

In the summer of 2017, someone abandoned a tabby cat on Danijela’s street, where it lived until winter. That’s when Danijela finally learned about him through a tip-off and wanted to help him because he was sick.

That very same day, the cat vanished forever. It was later discovered that a neighbor who disliked cats had put him in a car and driven him away. After several months of unsuccessful searching for him, in March 2018, there was a snowstorm. Danijela had a feeling and an urge to go to another neighborhood and check on the street cats, intending to photograph them to plan a spay/neuter campaign and leave them food. Upon arriving at the location, a tabby cat came toward her, barely trudging through the deep snow. It was him – Rambo. He was named Rambo because he looked like a warrior from street fights. Rambo was diagnosed with FIV (feline AIDS) and struggled with a series of other health issues that were a consequence of his life on the street, leaving him very traumatized.

Everyone had somehow "written off" Rambo from the start, saying he wouldn't live long, or suggested he be returned to the street to be a street cat, claiming he was wild and aggressive. The continuous rejection from people and the abuse he endured on the street resulted in distrust and anger within him. For nearly two years, Danijela dedicated all her attention to him and provided him with a forever home. Rambo completely transformed, which became the main inspiration and turning point in Danijela's private and professional life. In fact, because of Rambo, Danijela started a pet-sitting business to fund her cat rescue projects. In search of a quality scratching post, she received a recommendation for Mao-Mao.

Rambo’s ears were often the subject of inquiries about why they were so damaged or comments that they weren't pretty and perfect. Precisely for this reason, they became the symbol of MicMao – our logo for every brand, and every product carries that very design. And today, these ears of a once-abandoned cat who was unwanted in someone’s home have entered many homes in Croatia and the region in the form of products.

Why does our logo have such ears?

Our logo was not created on a computer nor is it the result of a marketing strategy.
It was inspired by Rambo, a cat whose ears were permanently damaged due to living on the streets.
These imperfect ears became the symbol of the MicMao brand.
What many considered a flaw, for us became a sign of strength, survival, and a second chance.
Today, Rambo's ears are in every one of our logos and on every product as a reminder of the story that started it all.

Our Mission

Our goal is to create quality products for cats and, through them, help abandoned animals. Our main mission is to "fund non-profit activities through profit" by realizing our own non-profit projects from our own revenues. Through MicMao projects, we successfully carry out spaying/neutering of stray cats in our area, and we financially care for 46 cats that were once strays. When we say "under our care," we don't mean that all of them live with us, but rather we mean exclusively covering the costs of food, litter, and veterinary care.

In 2024, we financed the construction of a prefabricated house with a catio where 80% of these cats received a roof over their heads and safe outdoor access (catio for cats that are not allowed outside), while some of them are exclusively accustomed to the outdoors or are feral, and we did not want to infringe on their freedom. :)

Only a few cats live with us in the house, and we also have 3 dogs, guinea pigs, a hamster, and fish. :) NOTE: We are not an association and do not accept animals or donations, so please do not contact us for that purpose. We exclusively act as individuals.