Maddie Dragsbaek & Mango
All hot girls have cats. It's a scientific fact. And Mango and I are just happy to contribute to the research. I’m surprised I didn’t gravitate towards cats sooner but I always grew up around dogs and didn't realize how much of a cat person I really was until I moved out and started living on my own. Looking back now it seems obvious. I spend most of my time at home, I'm introverted, opinionated, independent, and self-certain. I’ve been told I'm intimidating, but anyone that knows me well, truly knows how much of a softy I am (I am a pisces after all). So of course I'm a cat person, it just makes sense. I hadn’t really spent any time around cats until a mystery cat wandered into my apartment at the beginning of the pandemic. Overnight, she took to me and I absolutely fell in love with her. At the time, I knew it would be irresponsible financially to bring a pet into my life especially since it all came out of the blue. So I kept her safe until I found her a happy home, cried my eyes out when she left and decided that once it was the right time, I would have to adopt a tiny kitty of my own to fall in love with. A few months later, with a more stable income and living situation, I found my Mango on the Little Wanderers NYC Instagram. She was a tiny calico kitten described as a cuddle bug who can never get enough love and I knew she was gonna be the cat for me.
“The waiting and working with her to get her more confident was as difficult as it was rewarding—and I would do it all over again, for her.”
Adopting Mango was a lesson in patience. When I first adopted Mango, she was terrified of everything. She was constantly hiding, scared of loud noises and any sudden movements. The first few weeks I had her, all I did was worry about her and feel sad that she was so scared. I knew she could trust me, but it was gonna take a little while for her to know it too. Slowly, over the course of about a month, she started warming up to me, started sleeping with me, sitting on my desk while I worked, and sitting on my lap while I watched TV. I sat quietly and let her steer the ship, when she was ready, our relationship would progress. I let her lead the way, and lead the way she did. Over the following months, I watched her get braver and braver—meeting new friends, my family, getting better at vet visits and time in her carrier. She evolved into a social butterfly, a cuddle bug who wants to kiss just about everyone she can, a sweet little gooey girl (I called her Goo as a nickname for Mango and it evolved into Gooey which ended up extremely fitting for such a soft and loving little kitty). The waiting and working with her to get her more confident was as difficult as it was rewarding—and I would do it all over again, for her.
The entire time I've had Mango, I haven't seen her hiss or get aggressive with even one person. She's a sweetheart, a cuddle bug, a lap cat, and she lives and breathes to be loved on her own terms. She's playful, kisses everyone she meets, and loves chasing raindrops when they drip from the windows after a storm or the walls of the shower after I get out. She sleeps next to my head every night, on the left side pillow, snuggling closer to my face throughout the night. She loves being cuddled, rocked back and forth, and held like a baby that needs to be burped while I work at my desk. When we cuddle, she'll bump her head against my cheek whenever she wants a kiss and keep bumping me until she's had enough. One of my favorite things about her is how much she loves love but how clear she makes her boundaries known. When I go to the bathroom, she stands outside the door and cries until I open it up and let her come in. We're inseparable. It's a kind of love I've never experienced before with an animal. I hate spending any time away from her but I know whenever I come home from work at the end of the day, she’ll be waiting at the door, meowing and doing figure eights around my ankles the second I walk through the door. She's the center of my universe and I'm the center of hers, she’s made my life feel so much more fulfilling. It feels like fate that we ended up together.
Maddie Dragsbaek is a YouTuber and Filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY focused in helping women cultivate body and sex confidence and celebrate themselves as they are, in this moment.