{"id":5817,"date":"2012-06-02T06:50:56","date_gmt":"2012-06-02T10:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/?p=5817"},"modified":"2012-06-28T15:02:28","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T19:02:28","slug":"true-confessions-of-a-cat-lover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/true-confessions-of-a-cat-lover\/","title":{"rendered":"True Confessions of a Cat Lover"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My brother's newest family member - Abbie. Ironically, they named her Abbie without even knowing the name had special meaning for me. The first cat trapped on the Loews properties was named Abbie.<\/p><\/div>\n

During the past Memorial Weekend, I traveled from Florida with my mother, up north to Pennsylvania to visit my brother and his family. I decided on a whim to buy a book at the airport and a couple chapters into it, it turns out there was a subplot about a rescue shelter for cats. A short while after we arrived, we had to drop my brother\u2019s dog off at the local Petco to be groomed. We ended up walking out with a rescue cat for my nephew who had been wanting a cat for the longest time (it was a complete surprise for him). On the way back home to Florida, I heard strange noises on the plane and thought I had to be going crazy\u2026 it sounded like a cat. Not being able to take it any longer, I asked the young man sitting next to me if I was hearing things\u2026. Nope, he had a cat in a carrier next to him\u2026<\/p>\n

My point, my entire life, I have been surrounded by cats. I don\u2019t question it any longer \u2013 I have an intuitive relationship with these creatures and somehow they seem to find me, or I them, for whatever purpose. The majority of pet cats in my life came to me that way \u2013 a skin and bones black cat found along a rural roadside one very dark night; a litter of weeks old kittens found in the bottom of a dry well during a cold winter\u2019s day in Connecticut, abandoned by their mother and moments away from death; and another cat who just appeared in my driveway out of thin air. I also had a cat with one eye and several that I got through rescue organizations (along with numerous rescue dogs).<\/p>\n

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Shocking Revelation!! Lady in cat ears and leopard print really doesn't know everything about cats!<\/p><\/div>\n

Given that information, one would think I was an expert in cats. But, truth be told, as my life has ever increasingly changed after writing The Chronicles of Zee & Zoey<\/em>, a book about my current gang of seven cats, I see from my growing social circle of cat peers from blogging, facebook, twitter, and membership in such groups as The Cat Writer\u2019s Association and the Cat Lady Coalition, that I really knew very little about cats at all and was quite surprised at this admission.<\/p>\n

To vaccinate a cat or not. Raw food diet or not. What brand of dry kibble, what brand of flea collar, or no flea color. Indoor cats. Outdoor cats. Aromatherapy for stress. And on and on. The list of debate on the subject of cats is endless and I had no idea the amount of controversy and heated emotion these creatures could cause. Quite honestly, my dealings with cats was simple. I took the best care of them that I could and loved them with all my heart. This was based primarily on intuition, common sense, and whatever limited knowledge I had garnered thorough the years of endless trips to the vet. The brand of cat food I fed my cats was based on whatever I could afford from the grocery store at the time and the word \u201caromatherapy\u201d was not even part of my vocabulary. Nor were the initials TNR. I had no idea what a feral cat was, let alone that they existed, and while I had many rescue cats, I had no idea of the staggering numbers of cats on the streets and in shelters that were homeless.<\/p>\n

Looking back, I see that I was actually sheltered most of my life \u2013 from a childhood with no television, to an early marriage with children that kept me extremely busy, to a full time job to pay the bills, college as an adult, to divorce, to struggling to raise my boys as a single parent, to the point where I am today. I never had the time or resources to study up on cat issues, nor did I even realize there were cat issues to study up on. I knew it was important to have a cat spayed and neutered, but I did not know a female\u00a0cat could get pregnant before a year old. Neutering was a way to avoid spraying the furniture and spaying was not only to avoid pregnancy, but for anyone that has gone through a heat, it was a survival mechanism, as a cat in heat can be more than exasperating to the nerves! I had no clue a cat was healthier by sterilization, happier yes, but healthier, that I did not know.<\/p>\n

The Internet was virtually non-existent until recent years, and, as I said, it was a simple concept \u2013 take care of the cat(s) and try to get through the day. I never considered myself a bad pet owner, and I certainly don\u2019t now. But, what I am now finding out, is that the book that I ironically wrote as a heartfelt and inspirational story about my family of cats who got me through a very difficult time in my life and taught me incredible messages about love and having the courage to follow one\u2019s dreams, would actually bring some serious issues to the forefront in the cat world that I had never even considered.<\/p>\n

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My beloved Zee and Zoey<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite the flamboyant leopard image, I\u2019m not one that enjoys drawing attention to myself and I certainly never realized the full extent to which I could be subject to criticism and speculation.\u00a0 But, here\u2019s the deal, while I always loved all my stray and rescue cats, I also had a love for particular breeds of cats and bought Zee, my Maine Coon for Dan as a gift (it is his favorite breed) and a while after that, for myself, my beloved Bengal, Zoey. I got both of them from breed specific catteries and had every intention of spaying and neutering them. It did not happen in time and we ended up with a litter of kittens – a litter of kittens from two different breeds of purebred cats in a world rampant with cat overpopulation. As I said earlier, I thought\u00a0a\u00a0female cat\u00a0had to be at least a year old before she could become pregnant, of which I have now since learned is an absolute falsehood. A female cat can actually become pregnant as young as four months of age and Zoey was about eleven months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So here I am and you all know me by now \u2013 I am an ever increasing strong voice for TNR, I have helped spearhead the Save the Loews Cats effort, I have done interviews about the cats in the aftermath of the Japan disasters of last year, I have made informative videos on the misconceptions of feral cats and I am part of a new nonprofit rescue organization called Pawsitively Humane that Christine Michaels of Riverfront Cats <\/a>has founded. To say that my eyes have been opened to the severe and serious plight of cat overpopulation on the streets and in shelters would be an understatement.<\/p>\n

But, I must admit that sometimes in my new social world, \u00a0I feel a certain stigma, almost like I need to apologize for my purebred cats and for them having a litter of kittens, which I will not do. My cats have brought me incredible joy and this litter of kittens that I have taken full responsibility for, have been brought to me for a greater purpose \u2013 I have changed as a person as a result of them and I am fully committed to making the world a better place for cats. It is precisely because of my misconceptions and lack of knowledge that I feel I can champion to help educate the mainstream public, who, like me, can learn to become better, well informed, and more responsible pet owners.<\/p>\n

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These little beings have changed my life in ways I never thought possible. There are so many cats and kittens in shelters and in the streets that also deserve a loving home, and it is my genuine hope that I can help increase pet adoptions worldwide by educating people on how special cats are and by encouraging pet responsibility.<\/p><\/div>\n

I cannot change what I have done in my past, but my new found knowledge of the cat world has caused me to ask further questions about my own life’s decisions to the world in general\u00a0\u2013 is it wrong to purchase a purebred cat and should cat breeding be banned since we have such a huge problem of overcrowding in shelters and cats living on the streets?\u00a0\u00a0Or even more compelling, are cats in shelters\u00a0being euthanized as a direct result of cat breeding? I thought as a lot of us are gathering soon to meet at BlogPaws and we have quite an assorted mix of cat lovers, that this would be an interesting topic to tackle and in my newest series of interviews, I will be addressing these very controversial and intriguing questions.<\/p>\n

For part one of the series, I decided to go straight to the top (based on a recommendation from the esteemed Wendy Christensen of the Cat Writer\u2019s Association), to one of the most renowned pet experts in the field, Steve Dale, of Steve\u2019s Dale\u2019s Pet World<\/a> who is a certified dog and cat behavior consultant and give him a call. He was more than up for the challenge and I was fascinated with his answers. Part two of the series is a conversation with an actual cat breeder, Teri Thorsteinson of Curlz and Swirlz<\/a>, who was a Cornish Rex breeder. Teri was quite forthright with her discussion and I look forward to sharing these posts with you in the days to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the past Memorial Weekend, I traveled from Florida with my mother, up north to Pennsylvania to visit my brother and his family. I decided on a whim to buy a book at the airport and a couple chapters into it, it turns out there was a subplot about a rescue shelter for cats. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1269,360,1268,358,359],"class_list":["post-5817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration-healing","tag-bengal","tag-cat-breeding","tag-maine-coon","tag-purebred-cats","tag-steve-dale"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Kits5+Wks19.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5817"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5834,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817\/revisions\/5834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}