Cat Woman Wednesday: Canadian Style

Today’s Cat Woman Wednesday features Amy Paul, the talented young lady who designed the iconic I HAVE CAT graphic of Petie atop my head. She’s a self-described cat lady and she’s not shy about it, “They’ve treated and been there for me more than most humans, so I believe they deserve more than a hidden love!” Today she’ll share the story of how she became the sexy-hot cat woman she is today!

My name is Amy Paul. I live in Nova Scotia Canada and have one fur child Miles. I’m in my third year of college for art and do photography, painting and drawing, but my main focus is on graphic design. I have always had a passion for cats and art and I am in my version of heaven when I get to mix the two.

I have been a cat lover all my life thanks to my mom. It all started in my first home when a very pregnant cat (that we later named “Mama”) had many litters of little baby kittens. My dad never wanted cats in the house so mom would leave food outside our back door and groups of kittens would come to eat. Mom would catch them, spay/neuter then release them but she could never catch Mama, who continued to have babies.

Soon more and more kittens and cats joined the party and we became known as the cat-house. Though my dad was still not a huge fan of cats, he was forced to deal when I chose my first kitten. “It’s just one cat Dad!” My mom let me keep her and name her. I immediately fell in love with Whiskers.*

Next came Toby, my mom’s cat. I wasn’t there for the conversation mom had with dad but I imagine it went something like this: “But Ames has one! Just one more to keep me company while you are at work!” Dad being the loving, softy he is, gave in. “BUT NO MORE AFTER THAT!” He said. Little did he know that none of us would have the choice when it came to our third cat Stripes.

Stripes literally walked into our house one day and decided he was never going to leave. He hid so we couldn’t shoo him out (not that we really wanted to) and eventually became our third kitty cat. So, since the beginning of time and forever more I will continue to be a crazy cat lady. We now have four cats: Whiskers, Stripes, Miles and our latest addition, Dizzy. Whiskers will always be my best buddy but tends to be more Mom’s cat now. Stripes and Dizzy are hers as well.

Miles is my first fur child. She was named after one of my dad’s favorite Jazz artist, Miles Davis. She is my little girl to take care of forever and I love her more than anything in the world! Miles is an active one-and-a-half year old kitty who loves to play.

She is also a brat. Somehow it makes me love her even more but she is a true female. She tries to make me jealous by running towards me as if she’s craving my love, but at the last second will run to my boyfriend and dramatically cuddle him while never dropping eye contact with me. She knows her name but refuses to answer to it unless she feels like it. I know she loves me though. As I write this she is giving me a bath and occasionally bating at my fingers.

I occasionally harass my friends by forcing them to look at cat pictures, getting them to add Miles on face book or telling them numerous stories about my girl. I also actively engage in posting cat pictures on LOL cat sites. Miles is even on stickers, in a calendar and on greeting cards!

I’m a cat lady for life and am excited whenever I get to incorporate cats in my work. I absolutely do not limit my graphic designs, photography or art to cats but will always enjoy doing them!

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Epilogue: Toby sadly passed away last year of liver cancer. We had him cremated and he’s in our home still! And Mama many years later was finally caught and fixed and eventually she just stopped coming around one day.

The lovely and talented Amy Paul is available for project work. So give her a holler if you need some design work (cat or non-cat related!). You can reach her at amypauldesign(at)gmail(dot)com.

*Amy would like me to clarify that Whisker’s fur is wet in the above photo. She didn’t always look like that, but she wasn’t a big fan of photographs so there weren’t many to pick from.

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