Am I a Cat Lady?

Some people have been calling me a cat lady as of late.

But am I really?



First - let's go back to how this all began. It started with Manny back in NYC. You can see Manny in my profile photo. Back in 2005, after my old roommate Les moved back to Texas with her two cats, I decided to get one of my own. I always had a cat growing up. Prissy was really the first. So I went on 1-800-Save-A-Pet.com and found a cat I liked. I went to this apartment on the Upper East Side and this woman who lived there had 15-18 cats. Only two were her own, the rest she rescued and tried to find them homes. The stench was unbelievable and this was only a two bedroom - and a tiny two bed room at that. So I got Manny. Right away he developed chronically runny eyes. I took him to the vet and I discovered that he has a case of feline herpes. That's what cats catch when they live on the mean streets of NYC.

Manny and I have been companions for 4 years now. When I moved to Cleveland into a one bedroom apartment without a roommate (who had a dog) - I realized that Manny seemed lethargic. He had lost some of his pep. I determined that this must be due to loneliness and decided I needed to get another cat. So my friend Jessica (I now inhabit her former apartment) called me and said: "Hey, I know you're in the market for a kitten. We just found a really cute stray out back. You have to come see him!" I did. I fell in love. So I adopted Barry.

Meanwhile, Jessica had five cats of her own. Three were actually hers. The other two belong to my cousin Anne. Anne had just moved back to Cleveland from Baltimore. Her husband was sent to Iraq and she moved back home. My aunt and uncle said "we don't want those cats in our house so you better have someone take them until Joe comes back." Anne passed the cats off to Jessica. The cats are, after all, the daughters of Jessica's two cats, Sonny and Appolonia.

Now, time passed and Jessica moved back into her childhood home when her mom moved out. She called me and said - take over my apartment, it's super cheap! I thought that sounded good, but there was a catch. I had to take over the care of Anne's cats. My aunt and uncle will give me some money to help cover the cost of their food and litter, but I now have four cats to wrangle.

Men - is this a turnoff to you? My mother said it would be. But I am a take me as I am type of girl so if you don't like my cats, then that's your problem. I didn't see myself accumulating so many cats so quickly, but you never know where life will lead you.

This brings me to my recurrent cat dreams. I keep dreaming that I accumulate cats - so many cats that my life spirals out of control and I am unable to care for all these cats. My favorite cats usually end up perishing due to my negligence. I think there is symbolism in this dream - unrelated to cats. That's another post.

My friend Eric said more than three cats and you're a cat lady. But I didn't want four. I wanted only two. I am doing my country a service by housing my cousin's cats. I don't mind having them around. I enjoy the vitality they bring to the home. But I am not actively seeking more. In fact, if my dreams are indication, acquiring more cats is a great fear of mine. No, I say, I am not a cat lady.

Yes, this blog is intended for me to ruminate about pressing urban issues facing Cleveland. But I am sure there are many cat ladies throughout the metro area. Are there more rural or urban cat ladies? Is there a correlation of place to number of cats? Do cat ladies prefer rural areas because of the space or do they prefer urban areas due to the abundance of cats? These are pressing questions. What are the income and education levels of cat ladies? I would expect them to fall on the lower end of the spectrum but I could be wrong. Is there a matrix? When is the "cat lady" tipping point reached? I might suggest to my professors at Levin that we study these issues.