Cat Lady Post: Mid-level Cat Lady with Some Seniority

Dogs or cats?

It’s not that I don’t like dogs. In fact, I love them. I wouldn’t mind taking care of one or two. I want all the dogs in the world to be happy, taken good care of, and know that they’re safe and loved.

Cats are different though. I’ve always wanted a cat for a pet. It was just my luck that not only was I allergic, I was also asthmatic. Am, actually. Present tense. But I just feel an affinity with cats. I relate to their vibe more. More than anything, I like to curl up in a cozy nook and just observe the world from that spot. Or nap. Yes, napping sounds better.

I’ve never been afraid of cats. Dogs, on the other hand, were super scary to me as a kid. I remember being terrorized by a Japanese spitz called Beppo. I dreaded visiting his owners, people from our old church, but my parents were friendly with them for a time, so we’d often come over to visit. Beppo would relentlessly yip in figure eights around my legs, daring to jump every now and then. The adults tried to ease my fears by saying he was just trying to get me to play with him. It didn’t matter to them that I was frightened out of my wits. Right out of any good sense I may or may not have had because, despite their warning to me not to run, I was just so freaked out and overwhelmed by Beppo one day that I couldn’t help myself and took off running.

Beppo, of course, saw that as an invitation for a game of tag. He chased terror-stricken me around the yard until somebody finally caught him and put him inside the house. You could say that was a pretty traumatic episode.

I’ll have you know that I eventually grew out of my fear. Quite a number of dogs have fallen in love with me, if I do say so myself. They’re so friendly they probably “fall in love” with everybody, although I remember a huge basset hound that was absolutely smitten. I had no choice but to accept his slobbery love because he was so sweet.

As long as a dog wasn’t acting aggressive, I was fine with it. I still give dogs that are loose on the street a wide berth, but I’m more or less chill with their presence. I know better now than to take off running.

This is probably a good time to tell you a little bit about my personality. I’m not sporty. I do love nature and the outdoors, but mostly in theory. I’m a homebody and love cozy things. I’m also the worst and most unrepentant kind of introvert. I spent most of my growing up years reading a book and snacking. I think anyone would agree that a cat would be a more predictable fit to my lifestyle.

Not surprisingly, my daughter shares my sentiment toward cats. Her lovey as a toddler was a stuffed toy cat ingeniously named Kee Cat. We always said we’d get a pet when all the kids were potty-trained, so when we thought we were ready, we went to an animal shelter to see how they’d interact with the animals.

My daughter was particularly besotted with an extra fluffy Persian and held onto it for most of our time there. It soon became apparent, however, that she had inherited my cat allergy. We had to shelve the pet idea indefinitely.

And then the pandemic happened. It was arguably the best time to introduce a pet into our household.

What about our allergies and my asthma? My daughter sometimes hung out at the house of her friend who has a Siamese and she said that she didn’t get hives or watery eyes from it. I’d been researching about low allergenic cats and I was convinced that we’d do very well with a Russian Blue.

And that’s how our gang of fluff began. We started with two cats: Morgan and Onyx. We said we wouldn’t mind a third cat, but that was our limit. But then we got a fourth. At six cats, we said that was our absolute limit, but then, Chowder failed to get adopted by the person who was supposed to, so we ended up having him for our seventh cat. And we’re finally at our real limit.

As far as cat ladies go, I can’t claim to be at the top tier. I coo at cats in the wild and try to befriend them, but I mostly concentrate on the care of my own cats. I’ve fostered a couple of sickly stray kittens, but they had just happened upon the house. I don’t really actively do it.

I was going to go on and write about the various adventures and drama we’ve had with the cats, but it would be a case of me not knowing when to shut up about them. My daughter doesn’t quite have the same restraint, so watch out if you ever get to chat with her.

So after so much chitchat, the simple answer is CATS.😻 If you want to see what my seven cats are up to, follow them on Instagram. They’d really love the support.