And They Will Find her Dead Body Half- Eaten by Cats

As much as I would love to claim to be this unique snowflake who did everything as unconventionally as she could . . . I know that in some ways, I'm just as stereotypical as I can be.  I'm sure you've noticed quite a few of these . . . don't bother pointing them out, in my moments of self-awareness, I notice them all.

The biggest place where I fit the stereotype is being the single woman with mental problems who has cats.  Yes, cats. Okay, not like fifty or something. I only have three. Well, we used to have four, but then one of them died. Of course, once we moved into our current house, we adopted three more. Two of them are exclusively outside cats. One of them is indoors only half the time.

Okay, dammit. I have six cats.

And yes, I am one of THOSE cat people. I talk to my cats. I sing to them. I make up songs about them. They have nicknames. Not just ONE nickname, levels of many nicknames.  In fact, our cat Salem has been called Fluffy for so long, he doesn't even answer to Salem anymore unless he thinks he's in trouble. I don't make clothes for them, but only because my cats are mean and would rip off my fingers if I tried.  I have to admit though, the concept of Alice being in a dress is kind of awesome.

I'm not one of these people who loves cats and hates dogs though. I love dogs too. In fact, most of my life, the really significant pet in my life was a dog of some sort. They shaped a lot of my childhood.  Dogs really aren't suited for my current life though. They demand a lot of emotional attention. They have to be walked and need to go outside to do their business. Oh, and the barking. Kinda gets on my nerves.

This isn't to say I believe cats are perfect.  Cats play a lot of emotional games with each other and with humans. They puke. They scratch on things. They meow often and loudly.  And there is the litter box.

Despite their flaws, I find the evil little bastards charming.  I love the sound of purring.  I love the feel of their soft fur.  Most often, I have at least one of them sitting on or near me. They do kind of pretend to comfort me when I'm upset.  Cats are great house accessories. They can make even the most trashy of couches look classy.

I also love drawing the cats. Cats are great for quick art projects, because you have to really work fast to capture their pose before they change it.  And believe me, cats DO pose.  Some of them go to great length to look perfect at every moment.  In a lot of my art, you don't see the cat's face. In fact, sometimes, I don't even draw them facing me.  This is because I often draw them as they sleep and they tend to bury their heads or face away from me. I won't read too much into why they do that.

You know, it takes all of my meager self-discipline to keep from turning this into a crazy catlady blog.  Well, self-discipline and a desire not to be mocked. I could though. I have enough stories every day of stuff the cats do and pictures I could take and everything else in the world that could feel blog entry after blog entry.

To be honest. I really don't even have a problem with people doing that. I think if you want to blog about your pets, go for it. Who knows, maybe one day I'll start another blog where that's all I do. I'll join catlady forums and finally start knitting for them and the rest of the world be damned.  Will I be diving head first into the stereotype? Of course.

Of course, as with any stereotype, there will always be more to it as well.