Cats and Writing

Lots of writers have cats; I'm curious about whether they contribute to the process. As for myself, I need to have living things around (plants, critters); I can't function in a dead environment. Also, I think I have undiagnosed adult ADD, so I need to have some occasional flashes of movement.

Kurt and I have two cats, a black-and-white stumpy Cymric named Boris and a brown tabby longhair named Pyewacket. Pye was named after the Siamese in the movie Bell, Book and Candle; Boris was named by his foster mom. He had a sister, a calico rumpy Manx named Natasha. Pyewacket has been with us for a year and a half now. Before him, we had a wonderful orange tabby Maine Coon named Ziggy, a very bitchy morbidly obese black female named Ele Ele ("black" in Hawaiian), and Kurt's beloved calico Anais, named after Anais Nin. All three have since gone on to kitty heaven.

Personally, I find male cats more engaging than females. I also like how they will play with one another and stay out of my hair. I know that contradicts the first paragraph, but the females we've had in our lives are very jealous, and they attach themselves to one person and demand unquestioning nonstop loyalty from that one person, and frankly, I just don't have it in me. OTOH, Kurt misses the utter devotion he got from Anais, and I think we need to find that for him. But neither of us feels ready to get another cat. The big pitfall, of course, is that you expect the new cat to be just like the old cat, at least in personality; but cats are always so different in personality. So getting a new cat now, while the memory of Anais is so fresh, is probably a mistake.

Nevertheless, it's tempting to look at the shelter web sites and petfinder.org, isn't it? I just wish I didn't feel like an adulterer in doing so. But, truth to tell, I feel even guiltier when I look at adoptable dogs on those sites.