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GIRLS AND THEIR CATS

The cutest cat ladies & their feline companions

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“One day, Jason and I were having one of those life chats that can get pretty intense, when he pointed at Sophie and told me to look at her mouth. I thought he was just trying to change the subject, so I shrugged it off and kept going forward with what we had been talking about. When he told me I really needed to look at her, I saw that one of her teeth was sticking out of her mouth horizontally. He touched it and it was clearly hanging on by a thread. We went to an emergency vet appointment the next morning where I was told Sophie needed immediate dental surgery. When I picked her up that night, the vet took me aside and told me Sophie was only left with four teeth. Since then, Sophie has been thriving. She eats just as much as she always has (which is a lot). Her tongue gets stuck out of her mouth sometimes because of her new dental situation… an incredibly photogenic side effect. We have a million names for Sophie. Literally every time we see a funny word, that becomes our name for Sophie for the day. We were watching Chef’s Table the other night and they were talking about “chewy gizzards,” so today we called Sophie “Chewy Gizzard.” “Mango Chunk” is another recent favorite name for her. She brings us all the happiness. We are in the midst of planning our wedding and entering a new chapter. I love that Sophie has been a constant in my life for 6 years and it’s so nice to know she’s joining me in this next phase of my life. I like to say that I need Sophie and Sophie kneads me.” @emgaynor Emily Gaynor is the editorial director at @milkmakeup

“She’s always been pretty good, but with streaks of evil that I still find adorable. Her favorite place to chill has always been in a basket. I’ve had to upgrade and upsize the baskets over the years, but Sophie’s favorite ritual is to sit in a basket and stare out a window. Her first basket was a box that housed a camera I got as a gift. Then, as she grew, she took over a basket my aunt gave me in which to store nice napkins/linens. Now, she has an even bigger basket that rests on a big window ledge overlooking a tree-lined street where she watches the day go by. Sophie Anne has been there for me through some really tough times. When I went through a bad breakup and was suddenly living alone, she was my source of comfort. I’d come home from work knowing that I had hours of cuddling with her ahead of me. When I found out my mom was struggling with some scary health issues, I would hold Sophie even tighter at night. I used to ascend the stairs to my Crown Heights walkup, and I could hear her squeaky meows start as I approached the door. When I met my fiancé, I told him off the bat that I lived with a cat and loved all cats. He let me know he was more of a dog person, but was open-minded. One of my biggest joys has been watching Jason and Sophie fall in love. They’re best friends. He told me that Sophie has single-handedly changed his opinion of cats, so I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot.” @emgaynor #catlady #catmom #adoptdontshop #girlsandtheircats

“I’ve had cats my whole life, beginning with one my mom had in LA who ran away because I was born. I really have never not lived with cats, except for during college and then right after. I once got a rabbit from a woman in Union Square thinking that it’d fill the void of not having a cat, but it didn’t work out. Flash forward to 2012 when I had been out of school for a year. The guy I was dating at the time knew I needed a cat in my life, and we actively started looking at the rescue options near my apartment in Prospect Heights. One day, I was getting my nails done at one of my old go-to salons in the East Village, when he called me and told me to head quickly to an ASPCA truck that was parked on the street a few blocks away. When I got there, Sophie, born Selina Kyle (Catwoman’s real name), was curled up on a hot pink blanket with two little yellow mouse toys by her side. I had always wanted a long-haired fluffy cat, but something about the way teeny, short-to-medium haired Sophie was looking up at me with her bright green eyes really drew me in, and I adopted her on the spot. I took a cab back with her over the Manhattan bridge and let her loose in my small apartment. She hid under the bed for what seemed like days, but then began to take over. The early kitten years with Soph were a riot. One night I heard rustling in the middle of the night and, to my horror, Sophie was climbing up the dresses hanging on my clothing rack. She would swing from dress to dress like Tarzan, leaving little holes in her path of destruction. It was such a weird/bizarre thing to watch that I almost didn’t mind my shredded outfits. Happily, she grew out of that phase. Another ridiculous part of her kitten-hood that I remember fondly was her fascination with ice. I used to pour myself a drink, turn around, and then see her spinning the ice cubes with her paws.” @emgaynor #adoptdontshop #rescuecat #girlsandtheircats #catlady #catmom

Ok, maybe not expert level...more like awkward-but-making-it-work level. 🤷🏻‍♀️ #thethingsyoudoforyourcats #catmom

“Tesla has not had an easy life. Since I adopted him, he’s been in a cone at least once a year. He always finds himself in some sort of trouble, from ripping out a nail, falling out of his cat tree, to getting so sick that he sneezes blood. I’ve always given him so much love and care, but I really regret not taking the hint and getting him pet insurance. Two years ago, a bump showed up next to Tesla’s eye that I thought was a massive zit. When I took him into the vet, he didn’t want to touch it because they thought it was a cyst and they worried it would become infected. I also really regret not pushing them to test it. A year later I found out it was a mast cell tumor. He went into surgery to remove five of the cysts on his face so they could biopsy them. Every bump tested positive. He has cancer. The vet recommended that I take him to an oncologist to test his spleen/blood to see how far it has spread. Unfortunately, the tumors had gotten to his spleen and were pumping the cancer through his body. The oncologist told me I’d only have a few more months with him if they didn’t remove it. If they gave him a splenectomy, I’d be able to get at least another year with him. I had just gotten a new job with a raise, so I was luckily able to afford the procedure. Tesla has never seemed sick from the cancer, which always made it harder. He’s always been so playful, happy, and so affectionate. He’s now only a month away from what his life expectancy was last year, and unfortunately, it’s starting to show. I really hope he’ll survive beyond it though. Through it all, he is still so affectionate and snuggly. He always sleeps curled up next to me, often times he wants me to hold his paw. Sinopa likes to sleep nearby, but she likes to be a bit more in control of her environment. When I cry about Tesla though, Sinopa is often the one to comfort me.” @malloryheyer Mallory Heyer is an illustrator and designer. She works full time as a senior designer for Nickelodeon, but spends a lot of her free time drawing her cats and doing freelance illustration work.

“During the first year I had Sinopa, my roommate’s cat passed away and I wanted to find a new buddy for her. I had always dreamt of having a Siamese cat, but I didn’t want to get one from a breeder. I looked on craigslist and different shelter’s websites daily, waiting to see if a Siamese cat would show up. A small vet clinic in the middle-of-nowhere Minnesota posted a listing for Tesla, describing him as a stray in immediate need of a home. It took me 45 minutes to drive to the vet— I called them three times along the way to make sure no one else had adopted him. I was sitting in a chair and Tesla immediately walked up to me and curled up on my chest close to my face. He was in such rough shape that the vet couldn’t tell me his age. I didn’t care if he was 3 or 15. I immediately knew I needed to adopt him and give him the best life that I could. Judging from the condition he was in, I thought he could have been pretty old. After giving him a loving home, his nails became stronger and his coat became softer. My local vet estimated that he was somewhere around two years old. I was so happy that I’d get to spend more time than I previously thought I had with him. He had the cutest meow. It sounded like he was saying “brrrrow.” He still has a bit of the “brrrow” in his meow accent, but it has definitely faded. One of my favorite memories of Tesla is when I was in art school. I did a lot of painting, so I had paintbrushes on my desk. Tesla had an obsession with them. He would steal the brushes from my desk and play with them. He had this technique where he would hold the bristles in his mouth, throw the brush and run after it again. I joked that he was the reincarnation of Jackson Pollock. I even had him preform for my installation and performance class… unfortunately, he was too shy to show everyone. I would buy him his own brushes, as his obsession was so strong that whenever I had a friend over he would dig through their purses and backpacks to see if they had any paint or makeup brushes. Unfortunately, his fascination with brushes has died down—now he loves a very specific brand of mice toys.” @malloryheyer

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