There’s Nothing Weird About Owning a Cat

When people would say, "Don’t get another cat," I would respond with, "What the fuck is wrong with you?" They'd say, "Well, if you don’t have a boyfriend and you have a lot of cats, you might scare guys away." It was insinuated that you become less appealing the more cats you have. But I don’t hear people saying someone is a crazy dog lady. Perhaps it has to do with the stereotype of the crazy cat lady that has been perpetuated and evolved through hundreds of years of history when cats were associated with witches. It’s funny because people can be crazy happy, crazy beautiful, crazy artsy, but unfortunately, when you put that next to cat lady, it develops this negative connotation.

I don’t mind someone calling me a cat lady, but actually, I prefer to say I’m a cat woman. Look at every woman in Batman. They weren’t called "cat lady." They were Catwoman! From Julie Newmar to Michelle Pfeiffer to Halle Berry, look at all the strong women that have played that iconic role.

By creating CatCon, I learned there are all these amazing cat people out there who are underserved, and ironically, most of the attendees at CatCon are millennials. Whether you can attribute that to cat people like Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, Ian Somerhalder, etc., the bottom line is that there is a market that is untapped. The millennial pet parent has usurped every other demographic as far as spending in pet staples, as well as lifestyle products like furniture, cars, homes, etc. It’s remarkable.

Whether it’s the charity aspect, the adoption aspect, the entertainment aspect, I wanted to create this mecca for cat people that was an accessible and fun place. The week after the first CatCon, I quit my job at E! after 12 years. One reason was that CatCon was so profitable it afforded me that opportunity. The other reason was the people I saw inspired by this amazing community of cat lovers coming together in real life.

One woman said her son—who is autistic—was bullied so much that she had to pull him out of school, but at CatCon he found his people. Then there was a little girl who was burned from the neck down, and she came to see Lil Bub, a special-needs cat that inspired her to keep going. Thousands of others just loved that this event existed. I cried good tears that entire weekend and knew it was my calling. As I like to say, it was meow or never.

So go ahead, call me a cat lady. I run a cat convention! But it’s all about perception and reformatting what that means. Last year at CatCon, people came from 45 states, 621 cities, and 11 countries. The numbers tell a story, and I’m happy to be doing my part.

CatCon will hold its annual convention in Pasadena, California, on June 29 and 30, 2019.