Cat Ladies

Last night on Animal Planet I found a special show called Cat Ladies.
It saddens to me to think that media wants to portray people, especially women as "crazy" cat ladies. I wish I knew what the women who were depicted in the show thought of how they were portrayed.

There were four stories woven together, one mid-aged woman had three cats and spoke of her devotion and love for them, and only them. She was made to appear that she shunned human interaction.

Another was a younger single woman looking for romance but unable to find a suitable partner, and she seemed to want to believe the reason she couldn't find love was because of her 16 cats. At one point, she finally admitted that her abusive childhood made her have 'trust issues' with people.

The other two were a bit disturbing to me. One lady was a "rescuer" who felt that she alone could take care of over 100 cats in her suburban home (much to the chagrin on her neighbors). When you give up your bed to sleep on a plastic chair it's gone too far. Plus with having no medical background I don't think that there is any way housing that many cats in a small area is good for their health.

The last lady was a middle aged retired woman who had spent all of her savings on caring for homeless cats. She knew she had gone too far -- she had over 90 cats and was trying to adopt out.

Why does the media focus on making women look crazy?

I know of many people who serve animals to better their living conditions and they aren't anything like some of the women depicted on this show. It upsets me that those people who are striving to make a difference aren't given the attention they deserve.