"Am I a Cat Lady?"

Further to my being in New York last week…

While there on business, I had the opportunity to meet a publisher who loves cats and dogs. In fact, during our conversation, her basset hound listened intently as I presented myself as a Cat Lady who enjoys writing about cats. Several days after I returned to Houston, I was happy to receive a message from the publisher, in which she provided a link to a blog sponsored by PetFoodDirect. She knew that the subject would appeal mightily to me: “Am I a Cat Lady?”

Oh, let me count the ways. I didn’t post to the blog itself for fear of crashing the PetFoodDirect server. After all, I could write pages and pages and pages about what being a Cat Lady means to me, and I know that we all feel the same way and also will count our ways, and blessings, via communicating with each other online.

I could relate to the lead blogger’s story about how a coworker gave her the “Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure,” and how upon further inspection of the toy, she thought, “Wait a minute, she kind of looks like me!" I, too, have brown hair and brown eyes, but the similarity to the plastic figure stops there. I have nothing against sweatpants, but I refuse to dress the disheveled part of the Cat Lady who arrives straight out of central casting.

Yet consider this double standard: In the latest issue of T magazine that accompanied this past Sunday's New York Times , a writer traced the path of a prominent antiques dealer in Zurich. According to the article, the dealer “sets off in a scruffy parka to prowl the famous Zurich flea markets. Nothing about this guy blends in, including the fluorescent high-tops, and vendors spot him coming blocks away.”

So, it’s OK to be an antiques dealer who doesn’t dress too well while on the prowl for objets d’art, but a Cat Lady who doesn’t keep up with fashion while rescuing stray cats is ridiculed?

I think we could help overturn the Cat Lady stereotype by not affixing our badges of honor to bathrobes. We have to start somewhere. Meanwhile, I will continue to write about why I am a Cat Lady. Nobody can stop me now!

Query of the Day: Will you wear your Cat Lady badge for life?