A Crazy Cat Lady Nation

Crazy cat ladies. You either love them or you hate them. You’re either one of them or you’re not.

I knew a crazy cat lady once. At least, that’s what her neighbors called her. She owned a small house and took it upon herself to rescue cats (and dogs) who were in need of help. These were abandoned cats, broken cats, unloved cats. She gave them all a safe and warm place to stay while she worked with local rescue groups to find them their forever homes

Every now and then, I’d go over to her house to help her bathe her cats or take photos of her cats to put online. She did everything by the book. Kept her house clean, maintained meticulous medical records, quarantined new cats before introducing them to the rest of her four-legged family. She introduced me to the world of cat rescue.

Late one night while driving home, I saw a small kitten sitting frozen in the middle of the street. I swerved hard, pulled my car to the side of the road, and stumbled out with my heart in my throat hoping and praying that I hadn’t ran her over. There weren’t a lot of lights or cars but I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard the sound of a kitten crying. Her mews got louder and louder as I got closer and closer. I eventually found the kitten stumbling in the gutter covered in pus and garbage.

The first thing I did when I got back into my car was to call up this crazy cat lady for advice. I knew if anyone would know what to do, she would be the one. How odd that in the middle of a cat-related emergency, she was the one I turned to first. We weren’t close, I knew nothing about her, and yet she was the one I reached out to.

Two months later, there was a house fire. The crazy cat lady could’ve saved herself but she stayed behind trying to free all her animals. She died later that night from burns and smoke inhalation. Many of her animals didn’t make it out alive.

Now, whenever I come across stuff like this:

or this:

I think to myself that the world has it completely wrong. That woman taught me what it means to be a crazy cat lady. It is to have compassion. To care. To make a difference. Whether we’re single, married, old, young, man, or woman, I think the world would be a better place if we all had just the tiniest bit of crazy cat lady inside us.

So with the help of my husband’s superb drawing skills, I created the following crazy cat lady badge for you to put on your own blog.

Maybe you found yourself moved by this story, or maybe your life is just a little bit brighter because of a cat, or maybe you even have a cat on your lap right now. Whatever it is that makes you identify with the term “crazy cat lady”, let’s promise one another that we’ll live a life that makes our cats proud.

We’re crazy cat ladies! Hear us roar!

Photo Credit: Last call for kittens! by statelyenglishmanor on Flickr