"Did you ever hear the one about the spinster found dead in her pink bathrobe, surrounded by golden retriever puppies? Me neither." -Sloane Crosley

Why is owning a cat a bad thing, especially for a single woman? Our society equates cat-ownership with crazy-cat-lady-spinsterhood. Like that's a negative thing? Let me tell you, I'd rather be single and relatively happy than suffer someone else's need for constant attention; lack of cleanliness; snoring; farting; having to put up with their lack of independence; their need for me to 'check-in'; the air that they breathe and the space that they consume, let alone the eventual, inevitable divorce or murder. Give me singlehood any day.

However, as Dan Greenberg says, "There is, incidentally, no way of talking about cats that enables one to come off as a sane person". Seriously? Why is that?

An article in the March 2012 Ladies Home Journal entitled "Confessions of a (Kinda Sorta) Cat Lady" by Sloane Crosley says it all. Here are just some highlights....

There is no such thing as a crazy dog person in this country.

Cats have unfairly become symbolic of a certain lifestyle that includes staying home, eating ice cream and watching movies on Lifetime. I chalk this up to the fact that cats and their owners are on a private, exclusive loop of affection. After all, cats don't have other cat friends. You can't take them to the cat run or go on a kitty jog through the closest state park.

....a cat's lack of social need taps straight into our worst fears about our own potential hermit tendencies. Cats represent the danger of growing so independent you no longer know how to need anyone.

...if you are by all accounts normal, you'd be interested in petting any mutt that crosses your path. Dogs live their lives on display; they are flashy creatures, status symbols. Their breeds are well publicized and subject to trend, their owners bear a resemblance to them.

My cat has never humped anyone's leg, at least not unsolicited. Nor have I walked into the kitchen to find her digging in the trash. ....a cat is something hidden, a secret that needs confessing as the doorknob turns. By the way, I've been to the doctor and it turns out...I have a cat.

Cats are the Hanukkah of the animal world...

"It's just a cat, not a sticker collection."

Acceptance of cat ownership is generally relegated to the bookends of life. ....we're supposed to have cut the cord by age 10 and reattached it around age 70.

As a woman, it takes a lot of self-confidence to own a cat and be content with publicly adoring it. Did you ever hear the one about the spinster found dead in her pink bathrobe, surrounded by golden retriever puppies? Me neither.

Cats are compact and quiet. You can leave them be for a night or two and they have a natural skill set that prevents them from urinating on the floor. ...their mere presence deters rodents.

  I love my damn cats (most of the time) and wouldn't trade them for all the money in the world. Ok, that's not true. I'd trade them for that....but certainly not for an ear-piercingly-yappy-smelly-slobbery-ankle-biting-dog.