It was only a matter of time before I wrote a “crazy cat lady blog” and today is the day. Anyone who follows me on Instagram or Snapchat has seen the many pictures of my beloved cat, Gryffin. Yes, I am another youthful American who probably loves their pet more than most humans and acts like it’s my child. However, this post is not simply why my cat is the best animal in the whole wide world (which he is) but it’s about how I hated cats most of my life.

What?? How does the self proclaimed cat lady claims she once hated cats? Well, growing up my Dad was deathly allergic to anything with fur so we never had a pet. Thus, my only way of knowing which pet was the best was based on what I saw on TV, books, and experiences with childhood friends who had pets. Most of my classmates liked dogs more and it was seen as “uncool” to like cats more than dogs so naturally I was a dog person even though I never had much experience with dogs or cats.

Plus for the most part, cats have always had a bad reputation when it comes to what is portrayed on the media. My earliest memory of seeing a cat on TV was watching Disney’s animated version of Cinderella. The cat in that movie is literally named Lucifer and scared the hell out of me as a kid.  In 2001, the movie Cats vs Dogs was released and cats were the bad guys. Evil villains are often shown sitting on a chair petting a fluffy cat of some sort and black cats are associated with bad luck. Meanwhile, dogs have always been given a heroic role in movies such as Air Bud, Lassie, and Balto just to name a few.

So most of my life, I assumed one day I would get a dog because dogs were the best. I mean who doesn’t want a loyal companion who gives you unconditional love? When I moved to Arizona in 2015, my first roommate had a cat named Remix. Now at this point in my life I didn’t hate cats but they still weren’t my favorite. I was not at all opposed to my roommate having a cat because I figured it would just do its’ own thing anyway. Little did I know that this cat would change my views of all cats for the better. Remix was the most chill animal I had ever met and she did like humans. I would often be laying on the couch and she would just lay on me which shocked me. I thought cats didn’t cuddle but she did, on her own terms of course. It made me realize that this cat wasn’t too shabby.

When I moved back to Iowa, I knew eventually I would get my own pet and again assumed it would be a dog. My long term goal was to eventually own or rent a house and then get a dog because I didn’t want a dog in an apartment. Troy and I would always talk about one day getting a dog and we would be jealous of those who had dogs in the apartment building. About a year after I moved in to my current apartment, I had animal fever. I liked all the local shelters on Facebook and felt tortured every time I saw the sweet animals’ faces. One day, I saw a post that said they were in desperate need of cat adoptions and they were on sale for $15. I had my friend go with me to the shelter just to “look” at the cats because my mantra the last few years has been “well why not?” Well nestled in a box was Gryffin and long story short I took him home two days later and my life changed for the better that day. I finally understood why people were so obsessed with their pets because I became obsessed with mine.

If I were to ask random people what qualities cats had they might say lazy, scared, moody, and antisocial. Whereas, people may describe dogs as loyal, loving, and playful. Now that I have a cat who is loving, playful and loves humans I often wonder where did the stereotypes come from? Is it from human experience or does the media really play that much of a role when it comes to determining which pets are the best?

Now what if I were to ask you what qualities women have? What about men, Hispanics, African Americans, homosexuals, atheists, Christians, Democrats, Republicans? What do people think? When a person makes an assumption what is it based on? Is it truth? Is it a one time experience? Or is it what they’ve seen on the news, movies, or TV shows?

This is the problem with society. We lump everyone and everything in categories and we sometimes forget that just because someone is associated with a group does not mean anything about their character or traits. It is as simple as cats and dogs. Many cats are just as loving and playful as dogs and there can be some pretty crazy dogs out there. (I mean have you seen or read Cujo??)

I am guilty of having prejudice against people I don’t know.  We all have done it at some point in our lives. I read once in a psychology class we put people in groups because it’s a way to make sense of everything in our brain, but we also can train our brains to rethink judgement upon others. No one should be judged based on their race, sex, gender, religion or looks. This is why I always encourage people to get out and experience life. I know it can be hard, I’m an introvert and would rather stay at home trust me, but the more experiences a person has outside of their normal the more likely a person can combat their internal prejudice. Experience is the greatest knowledge we can get.

So remember cats can be cool too. You just have to give them a chance, like anyone else.