Cat Chic Week 8: The Cat Connection's Errin West

Ahoy cat loving friends! Over the past several weeks we’ve been introducing you to talented, big hearted and accomplished players in the cat world in an effort to debunk the old stereotype that cat people are necessarily shy, introverted and “crazy”. They may be, of course, but we’re not convinced cats have anything to do with it. Today we’ll test the theory once again by getting to know a successful catrepreneur whose private and professional lives both revolve around cats.

Errin West co-owns The Cat Connection, a one stop shop for all things feline. Located in Dallas Fort Worth, this small boutique offers a variety of high quality food and supplies as well as services such as boarding and grooming. Recently they hosted a series of pop up cat cafés to raise money for local shelters and find forever homes for adoptable cats. For those without physical access to this incredible store, the Cat Connection also offers an online shopping experience and can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

In addition to managing a busy store, Errin’s brain is constantly thinking about ways to further improve a kitty’s health and wellbeing. Probably because she goes home to seven cats after spending her day immersed in cat stuff. After noticing how much her kitties enjoyed playing with hair elastics and rubber bands, Errin decided to invent a safer alternative that she coined “Jerry Kurlz.”. Shaped like elastic bands, Jerry Kurlz are made from natural paper and infused with catnip. Just watch your cat refuse the Jerry Kurl – it won’t happen.

On a personal level, Errin struck us as extremely sweet and kind. Considering how her life seemed so saturated with cats, we were curious whether she considered herself a crazy cat lady. About living up to the stereotype she mused, “Four or five days a week, that’s fine. The other days – the weekend – no, not so much crazy cat lady. We may be crazy and we may have cats but the two don’t go together!”

That’s what we’ve been saying all along! Thanks, Errin, for putting it so simply. And for showing us that you can be a crazy cat lady on Monday and someone completely different on Friday. Although cats love boxes, we humans often find them a bit constricting.