The Not-So-Crazy Cat Lady (Blog #1)

I admit that I own three cats. The moment I tell someone that, the typical response is a small smirk, probably assuming that I had ordered a “Crazy Cat Lady Starter Kit” online. But like I try to explain to my friends that tease me, I am not a crazy cat lady. Or at least, I don’t think I am. I am a relatively normal person who likes to read, write, and play video games.

Anyways, I have loved animals as long as I can remember. Along with being a fashion designer, one of my dream jobs in elementary school was to be a veterinarian. That dream was short-lived when I realized I would not be able to deal with the sad parts that comes with being a veterinarian.

That, and how damn hard the word ‘veterinarian’ was to spell when I was seven.

I have always grown up with pets. Over my lifetime, my family’s household has had, at some point in time, three dogs, three cats, three hamsters, and a couple turtles that would escape from the confines of our backyard after a few months.

When I first moved out of my house and into an apartment, one of the questions when I signed the lease was “Do you own any pets?” I laughed and told the woman no and that it wouldn’t happen.

            Needless to say, it took all of three months to realize how empty I felt not having a pet. Yeah, Joey my beta fish was good company, but it wasn’t the same as having an animal curled up next to me at night.

            After talking to my boyfriend about getting a cat, I was surprised that he agreed. So we adopted Tiger from a family friend he knew. If there is a stereotype that describes a cat, Tiger fits it. He is a typical lazy, fat cat whose only abnormality is that he enjoys licking people as if he were a dog (which may explain why he likes to eat dog food when we visit my mom’s house).

            I noticed that Tiger needed a companion and so we adopted Kisa a month later. She is undeniably the baby of the group because of her child-like habit of following me wherever I go, scratching at any door that separates me from her. Kisa is a naturally petite cat and almost completely grey on her body except for a few white hairs on her back that make it seem as though she got too close to some paint, reminding me of the antics of Pepe Le Pew.

            The next cat took a lot of convincing my boyfriend (at this point, I am sure people wonder how I still have a boyfriend). Our apartment is not too small, but not very large either. He told me that there wasn’t enough room for another cat. But after a lot of begging, he finally caved in.

            I knew my next cat would come from the Humane Society. Not a kitten this time since they are usually quickly adopted. But a middle-aged cat. The age that makes people worry that the dog or cat won’t get adopted. It always breaks my heart to think about it.

            And so I adopted Sky. Her bright-blue eyes seemed to bewitch me into choosing her. When we took her home, one of my first observations was that she was sweeter in her cage at the Humane Society. I suspected her innocence was a ploy to get adopted like my mom’s cat Kit had played on us when we adopted her when I was in the first grade. But after months of getting used to frisky, young kittens, she turned into the (mostly) docile cat I expected her to be. Even though she has the sharpest claws of any cat I know (she sticks like Velcro to furniture and carpet even when she doesn’t mean to), she enjoys belly rubs. From my experience, most cats flip onto their backs, seemingly an invitation to rub their bellies, and, in the blink of an eye, unsympathetically grab you hand, claws out, and then pointedly chomp on your unsuspecting fingers. Luckily, Sky isn’t the type.

            After owning my cats for over a year now, I have no regrets adopting them. Yeah, the medical expenses and two visits to the emergency clinic weren’t ideal, but owning them brings me a level of normalcy and calm that reminds me of home and when I was younger. In some way, they help me accept the fact that I am getting older, will never again live at my mom’s house, and will soon have a career of my own. I have found that starting a new family, one that is not of the human species, makes it more bearable when you no longer live with your first family.

Pictures: Kisa, Sky, & Tiger