I am definitely akin to the cat.

Young Woman Holding a Cat by Gwen John

In August, I let an old friend read some of my WIP, which is really something I don’t like to do. I suppose it’s because I am always editing the WIP and I don’t need people wasting their time on something that is likely to end up in the garbage can. It always does especially if it’s in the first 150 pages because I rewrite those pages over and over as I write along. While reading she suddenly asked me out of nowhere, if I had based one of the characters on myself, and then she added, “and the cat character too…those two are a lot alike.” Rarely do I ever find myself dumbfounded and speechless by a reader’s comment. That’s not my personality at all. But I was stumped that maybe I had written myself into a book unconsciously, without a plan. Of course, this person has known me over 30 years. I have to admit, I stopped writing at that moment and began reading all the little vignettes I had written in the last year for this book, and low and behold, I had not only written myself into this story, I had written what it was like to be a cat person. 

 Cat people are different from dog people in many ways, though some people are both cat and dog people. The latter just love animals. But this essay is more about psychology than just being an animal lover. People who really love ONLY cats are very different people and a much smaller percentage of the population. I’ve always known this, long before Google ever existed. I knew it as a child, just from my childhood neighborhood which I believe was very representative of the general population. Dogs were everywhere, in over half the households. Of course, some people did not have pets at all. But rarely known was the “strictly cat lover.” There was only one on my street and no, I was not the one. We were not allowed to have pets in the house for various reasons. But we had dogs, cats, rabbits, turtles, birds, you name it, all outside in the backyard like a little zoo.

When I look at my characters, the ones the reader/friend mentioned, I realize how aloof and set apart they must appear to the reader. In some ways that makes them less likable and huggable. At the same time, it is those very characteristics that enables them to solve the story’s major challenge. No one else in the story could do it. And that story problem made me think of cats, how silent and dispassionate they are, how they are able to strike back if annoyed or confronted, how secretive and covert they can be when stalking, how open they are to change and new ideas. Cats are very creative. Less than 12% of the population truly loves cats for who they are, hunters and stalkers. In fact, cats are still carnivorous hunters like their distant ancestors. I have always been a cat person. It is the only pet that I bonded with over the years. They are independent creatures and I suppose that is something I truly value. 

Kitty the Cat and I are best friends. Who knew?