Confessions Of A Not So Crazy Cat Lady

Cats are my passion, and I love to share what they've taught me with others. Patience, living efficiently to conserve our energy and strength and resolving disputes by literally turning the other cheek are all lessons we can learn from our cats.

My journey into the hearts and minds of cats began more than 20 years ago when I discovered 16 feral kittens living in a parking lot. The summer I spent alone in the parking lot with the kittens, feeding, trapping and relocating (we didn't do trap/neuter/return in those days) changed the way I view cats forever. It was a wonderful, almost magical experience, and I'll always be grateful to those tiny wild ones for sharing their world with me..

Photo: © Marilyn Gould | Dreamstime.com

My first career was as a newspaper features writer and editor. Then I started a pet sitting service because I'd just gotten divorced and needed an extra money job. More than 30 years later, I'm still a cat sitter and wake up every morning looking forward to going to work. Of course, I still write, too, and I'm the president of a cat rescue that operates a no-kill, cage-free shelter.

I'd always lived with cats, sometimes many cats. But those kittens taught me that cats are far more complex than we may think. And when I was alone with them outside in the parking lot, I felt that we were communicating with each other on a higher level.

Over the years, I've read enough cat behavior books to fill up an entire bookcase. I can rattle off cat litter box solutions without even giving them a second thought. But the books that are the most meaningful and interesting to me are the ones that look at the world from the cat's point of view. Cat behavior problems, I've discovered, are almost always human behavior problems. And when we try to think like a cat and accommodate our cats' unique needs, those behavior problems fade away.

Photo credit: By Alvesgaspar, CC-BY-SA-3.0

• Grandchildren... all six of them! They range in age from six-18.
• Facebook... because it lets me keep in touch with my grandchildren. It's like a little family reunion every evening.
• Reading... there's nothing I love more than curling up with a cat and a good book.
• Walking with cats... yes, my cats and I love to walk together.

This lens was blessed by a Squid Angel. Thank you WriterJanis