How To Become a Cat Person
It’s not easy but it’s possible. I’m proof. Prepare for pain.
Are you a dog person? Do cats freak you out? Do you see the tiny face and giant eyes of a feline and feel a shudder run through you, as though you’ve gazed directly into the soul of the devil himself?
I used to be like you. A bite from a cat — a cat that had been purring beneath the gentle touch of my fingertips only seconds before it turned on me — put me securely in the ‘I Love Dogs’ camp when I was just eight years old. But now, twenty years on, I can say with hand on heart that I am both a dog and a cat person. Here’s how I did it.
Step 1: Accidentally date someone who has a cat
I met my boyfriend through a dating website. We talked for weeks, maybe months, before we met. Somehow, the fact he had a cat never came up during all those days of non-stop texting. He didn’t mention his baggage.
So you can imagine my surprise when he invited me to his place for the first time and I spied the tell-tale presence of a cat — fur clumped to the carpet, a bag of cat litter stashed in a corner, the sense of evil hanging in the air.
“You didn’t say you had a cat,” I said, wondering if I should turn around, run back to my car and speed into the…