Cat Chic Week 16: We Saved the Best for Last: Pudge

Happy Caturday fellow cat lovers! Well the time has finally come – today postmarks the end of our cat chic series. Several weeks ago we set out to debunk the myth that most cat people are introverted, antisocial and a tad crazy. Back in June 2015 we attended a LA cat convention and met a variety of successful people who are shaking up the cat world with their interesting, creative and charitable work. With so many cat people congregated in one (awesome) spot, we decided to do a bit of hard hitting investigative journalism. Did these modern day cat people live up to the stereotype, or has a new identity emerged – one that is cooler, hipper, and less incline to fit into a rigid box?

Before we divulge our findings, allow us to introduce you to this week’s cat chic duo: Kady Lone and Ilsa Burke. These two lovely ladies are responsible for introducing Pudge to the masses - Kady as her human and Ilsa as her manager. If you’re unfamiliar with Pudge, do take the time to check out her Instagram account - you won’t be disappointed. A lady with an epic moustache, unique coat and unimpressed expression, Pudge delights her 537K Instagram followers week after week. She’s just so effortlessly…herself. A lesson for all of us – what makes us unique makes us beautiful. Flaunt your quirks cat people!!

In addition to providing a home for Pudge, Kady is the designer and editor at @cats_of_instagram, which boasts a following of over 5.3m cat fanatics. To state the obvious, she is deeply involved in the cat/internet phenomenon – and killing it. Both ladies came across as artistic, cool, creative and savvy businesswomen, but we were still curious: did they consider themselves to be crazy, introverted and antisocial?

Kady reflects that, “I’m not different from that!”

While Ilsa states, “I would say that I’m a lover of animals and I think that shows that I care about life and about people, so I don’t think that makes me crazy at all. I think it makes me sensitive and awesome.”

Here are two ladies, one cat, an audience of millions, and perspectives that differ. We embrace this clear-as-mud consensus. Thank you ladies! What a poignant way to wrap up the series. Ok, so let’s see if I can compile our findings into a helpful profile you can refer to whenever you’re searching for a way to describe cat people. From what I can tell, cat people can be crazy or not, depending on their own definition of the term. Isn’t everyone a little bit crazy…and is that a bad thing? Food for thought. As far as antisocial and introverted are concerned, some of our interviewees definitely categorized themselves as such. And some didn’t. And yet those who did were still socializing with their peers at a big conference in LA. How antisocial is that? Certainly not to the degree that we typically associate with the “crazy cat lady” stereotype. All in all, the cat people we met had one thing in common: they love cats. And not only that, they’re out there sharing their love through creative channels and helping create a supportive, like-minded community. Many are channeling their passion into charitable endeavours that are helping cats in need, both in person and over the internet. Their success doesn’t end with simply enjoying the company of cats – they care deeply about the welfare of all the world’s felines. And like Ilsa stated, loving animals speaks to a sensitivity and general awesomeness that all cat people can be proud of. Loving and taking care of the world’s creatures is certainly not crazy…not in a bad way anyway.

So there you have it, a totally non helpful definition of a cat person. But we hope you enjoyed getting to know a few of the key players shaking things up in the cat world. Continue being yourselves, cat people, because you’re awesome.