How I became “The Cat Lady”

As a child I was always surrounded by dogs & cats.  Most were strays and followed me home; or at least that’s what I always told my mom.  The little old ladies next door fed stray cats and so some of the resulting kittens ended up in our house.  My family didn’t have a lot of money so they rarely went to the vet and we certainly couldn’t afford to have them fixed – which led to more kittens.  I loved my pets but I didn’t really appreciate them until later in life.   In 1981, I took in two black kittens from the same litter and they were with me from the age of six weeks until they died, 5 days apart, 19 years later.  I had grown to consider Shadow and Baby my kids and losing them was devastating.  I swore that I would never have another cat because it hurt so bad to lose them.  Within a couple of weeks, I missed being greeted when I came home and snuggled up to when I went to bed.  Within a month, I had three new kittens; Scarlet, Caesar and Cleopatra (Cleo).  One year after that, I had two more kittens that had been abandoned in a box by a dumpster, Valentino and Romeo. 

I love telling other people about their different personalities and some of the little ad ventures they have.  All my friends started to refer to me as “The Cat Lady”.  After the heartache of losing Baby and Shadow, I wanted to make sure that my kitties knew how much I loved and appreciated them.  They give me unconditional love and I pamper and spoil them like crazy.  When I had my basement finished, I had a little room built under the stairs for the electric kitty pans – complete with a kitty door and an electrical outlet to power the kitty pans and a nightlight.  As I write this story, Cleo is laying in my lap purring.  Life is good.