Here Kitty Kitty
by Cari Crosby

A love of cats runs in my family.  In my lifetime, my mom, dad, and brother have owned no less than ten cats in three different households.  We’ve had a dog from time to time too, but cats have always been the constant.  I guess we’re just cat people. 

I have countless funny cat stories.  There was Ernie, the cat that used to bring live, seemingly uninjured chipmunks into the house and set them free.  Who but a cat owner would understand what it’s like to try to catch a live chipmunk running around your house?  And then there was Nikki, who went nuts whenever she could hear popcorn popping.  And Bayta, who used to have a weird habit of sucking on our fingertips, and would suck holes through our sheets at night.   Cats are funny creatures, and it takes a cat owner to really understand that. 

Throughout most of my life, I’ve inadvertently surrounded myself mostly with fellow cat people, and have had many random conversations about all of the funny things that cats in general do, and how great they are.  It might sound stupid to a dog person, but it seems that a lot of us do it; we find ourselves telling each other stories about ‘that time Ernie managed to climb the outside of the house and was begging to get in from the 2^nd floor window,’ or how freaked out Nikki got when he first discovered catnip – things that only a fellow cat owner would understand and laugh at.

Yet, through all ten of those cats my family has owned, not one of them has been “mine.”  My brother can claim a few of them, my mom some, my stepsiblings a few, and my dad a couple.  Soon, I will be getting my own cat with my dog person boyfriend.  Now, he doesn’t hate cats, as some crazy people do, but he’s never owned one. Most of his family is most definitely not cat people.  They have accepted the fact that in the next little while we will be getting a cat of our own, but I think the idea took some warming up to.  It’s been interesting watching reactions from his dog people friends and family as we tell them we’re going to be getting a cat.  And I’ve felt sorry for him as I find myself getting into cat conversations in which he just sits idly by. 

In any case, we’ll get to pick it out, name it, and have it be ours. We’ve already begun picking out names, researching good places to get one, and have asked every apartment we’ve looked at if they allow cats.  I’ve been without a cat due to housing for nearly 5 years now.  My mom still has two, so whenever I visit I can get my cat-fix, but I’ve decided that one of my number one priorities for my next move will be that they allow cats. 

I’m very excited to get a cat.

All images thanks to Dan Crosby


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