They Walk Among Us

Today’s post is written by a colleague of mine who has the distinct pleasure of sitting next to me at work. Patrick’s a single 30-something year old living in NYC – without cats (for now).

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When I first met Tamar she seemed like a normal NYC single chick.  She was funny, outgoing and showed no signs of being anything other than the new girl at work with a funny name.  But little-by-little I began noticing things that seemed out of place.  The constant presence of a lint roller.  Obsessing over what appeared to be a blog (but it was tough to tell from just glancing at her screen on occasion). Then, the part about being a vegetarian came out and it prompted the larger discussion.

Tamar attempting to remove any cat evidence before a client meeting

All along this seemingly normal woman had been quietly hiding her other life…the one that she shares with her 2 (sometimes 3 or even 4) cats.

And if that wasn’t interesting enough, given we all know the stigma cat ladies carry (especially single ones) she went on to quietly share with us the URL for her blog.  You can imagine my thought.  “Oh my god, they just hired a cat lady!”

Now this is where it all gets intriguing because despite the preponderance of evidence, she claims very adamantly that she is not a “cat lady” and is a normal woman that simply loves her cats.  She will tell you her blog is not cat-focused, but that the cats are used as a story-telling vehicle. She will tell you she is not obsessed with the independent little animals, shes just a nurturing person.

Being the son of a self admitting cat woman I knew better from the start but allowed her to try and convince us otherwise. Then came the pet blogging convention and the gallery showing with pieces of art made entirely from recycled pet food cans.  And the final straw, an article about her in PeoplePets.com.

Now from the outset you never would expect such things from Tamar.

She doesn’t dress in cat themed clothes (yet).  She’s well dressed, well kept (relatively cat-free hair) and attractive.  She doesn’t pronounce perfect, purrrrfect and she never meows…well almost never.  She doesn’t have many of the qualities you would expect from any self respecting cat lady.  Maybe she really is just like most of us and has found a balance between cat loving and “normal” living.

But alas, if you believe that you truly don’t understand her.  Despite her beliefs (and I truly believe she thinks this), she is not a normal person that happens to love cats. She is a cat woman disguised as a normal person and you know what, it makes me wonder how many more of her are out there fooling the unsuspecting men of this city.