Don't Call Me, "Cat or Dog Lady" (Reply)

CapeMews Writes: I caught a whiff of their conversation. They were speaking of some cat lady organizing a trapping and making good natured, gentle chuckles about what could only have been one of my escapades. Crimminy!
Where had been the tipping point? How was I no longer a person, but a cat lady? It must have been years ago for every gift bears a cat. Cat statues, flags, pajamas, slippers, shirts, scarves, trivets, sweaters, journals, books on and on and on. Dear and thoughtful souls shared these loving presents; however, I no longer had an identity apart from cat. What happened?
The strombolli shoved across the counter brought me back to now. I quietly paid and quickly left – undiscovered. At home the clothes were dropped into the washer with a cup of bleach to prevent the spread of wild germs in a multi-cat home; the shower rinsed the toil and renewed the hair; the couch welcomed tired muscles as I chomped down on the strombolli in my fuzzy slippers and cat pajama’s with cats reclined all around me. Geez, I was a cat lady. And, guess what? That’s alright.

Reply: All of us in rescue can relate particularly to this passage and your experience.

If we had it all to do again, would we go back and change who and what we became?

No, not at all.

However, there is huge personal price to pay, not the least of which is danger of losing those other parts of ourselves that used to complete our identities.

Personally speaking, I don't like the phrase, "cat (or dog) lady" and find it demeaning both, from a kind of sexist vantage point as well as a total misunderstanding and misrepresentation of what we do and why we do it.

Are we crazy, neurotic "animal people" who relate to animals, rather than humans?

Does our entire world only revolve around animals to the exclusion and obliteration of everything else?

I have to admit that there have been and are times in my life when it feels that way.

I can't honestly remember the last time anyone has discussed with me or asked anything aside from the topic of animals.

Do I have a favorite book, movie, song or preference in the Presidential election?

If so, nobody seemingly wants to know.

I am in animal work (and have been for almost 20 years) not because I love animals and hate people or have no life or viewpoints apart from animals, but because I see the treatment of animals in our culture as something that needs attention, address and better understanding. I see animal treatment as a social and justice issue that needs to be worked on from the inside out.

Last night in a speech before the NAACAP, controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright proclaimed, "People are different, but not deficient."

Well, animals are different, but not deficient, from humans.

And yet, as beings (presumably, like people, created by God) we abuse, exploit, abandon, "euthanize" and slaughter billions of animals every year for our own purposes without regard for either their intrinsic value or capacities to suffer.

Those people who dare to speak up for justice and better respect and treatment of animals are typically decried as "animal nuts" or belittled as "cat or dog ladies." (i.e. neurotics who love animals better than people and have no lives apart from animals.)

I am in rescue not because I want to fill up my apartment with cats and dogs, live like a neurotic recluse or because I feel I can save the world.

I am in rescue because, where God has afforded me the opportunity to save lives (usually through available foster homes and those animals being adopted), I have obligation to do so as per my personal mission, skills and will.

Like you, I value, respect and love the animals I personally foster and feel a certain satisfaction and gratitude for having opportunity to have saved and cared for them and, quite frankly, share my life with them.

But, I don't see myself as a "cat" or "dog lady." -- Not at all.

Rather, I am simply a person who has appreciation for all forms of life and has been afforded special opportunity through the graces of God to bring that appreciation and respect to a kind of fruition in terms of actually saving lives and hopefully, inspiring greater societal respect for non-human, living beings, be they cats, dogs, ducks, chickens or cows.

I, in essence, see myself (and other animal rescuers) far more as a missionaries for (animal) justice than "cat, dog, rabbit or duck people" per se. --PCA

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This entry has 1 comments: (Add your own)

#1 Comment from jmuhjacat
4/28/08 8:14 PM | Permalink

Wonderful thoughts and words, Patty -- and from the poster, too! I chuckle (while wearing my pink lounge pants with cat pattern, my two cat necklaces, my cat bracelet -- you get the picture) while reading her post, and cheer having read yours. Yeah, that IS why we do what we do, and I would go even farther than that. To quote the folks out at Best Friends, who certainly talk AND practice kindness, compassion and personal responsibility par excellence, "BE KIND TO ANIMALS, BE KIND TO TREES, BE KIND TO THE EARTH AND EVERYTHING ON IT. BE KIND TO CHILDREN AND ONE ANOTHER...AND GOD WILL BE KIND TO YOU. AND THAT'S A PROMISE! SIGNED, *GOD* While I'm sure there are plenty of cynics and disappointed, frustrated, sad people out there, I'd say this is accurate.

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Don't Call Me, "Cat or Dog Lady" (Reply)