I recently read a blog titled “It’s Time To Smash The ‘Crazy Cat Lady’ Stereotype” and it has prompted me to second that notion and give them a little internet ‘juice’ for the lovely perspective.
It’s true. The stereotype of ‘crazy cat lady’ is a negative one, whether or not we laugh about it. Last month, one of our closest friends had a going away party at the nightclub. We had every intention of showing up…until he told us that it started at midnight. I text him with an apology and told him that we would make it up to him but that midnight was past our bedtime (by far). His response was classic, “It’s ok I understand. You are two old ladies with cats.” Haha! I chuckled (he was only being funny – we’re in our thirties). Silliness aside, Adrienne and I do not match the criteria for being labeled crazy cat ladies other than the fact that we don’t like to party too hard and we enjoy an earlier bedtime than most of those our age here in the big city life of Las Vegas. Well, that, and we love cats.
One of our major goals in our journey here at TwoCrazyCatLadies.com is to debunk this stereotype and show our readers that this label can actually be flattering. After all, we do have several friends our age who have multiple cats at home and DO party hard with the rest of the Vegans.
According to the blog I read, men have had this idea that having a cat as a male companion is the opposite of masculine…”For years, the first rule of being a dude in Cat Club was: You do not talk about Cat Club,” (Brian Levinson writes in Time Out New York). Yet, according to their poles, 56% believe that more people would adopt cats if the stereotype of being a cat owner was removed. I believe this to be true as well.
There are many reasons why cat lovers are some of the kindest, most compassionate people alive and one of those reasons, I believe, is because the majority of cats are rescued…not bred. Over the past 18 years of life, we’ve never once attempted to “own” a cat (in contrast, they own us). We have rescued all of our babies from bad situations, not because we were hoping for another cat companion but because we saw the need…and filled it. And oh what a blessing. Our family and our hearts have grown so much because of this decision. This makes me think of the show What Would You Do? – we always label the people who step up and defend someone in a horrible situation as “good” and those who just sit back, watch, or walk away as “bad.” Well, there you go. Crazy cat ladies are never the latter…
According to the ASPCA, of the 3.4 million cats in shelters, 1.4 million are euthanized. Help us on this journey to change this crazy cat lady stereotype and let more men and women know that cats are not only amazingly wonderful companions, but they need us.
What will you do?
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