Cats--and Owners--in a Class of Their Own

There are cat people and there are dog people. It would be impolitic, not to mention potentially dangerous, for me to place myself in one of these categories. Suffice it to say that my pet is the one that chases your pet.

It’s not that I have any particular disdain for cats. It’s the owners I find problematical. At least some of them. There was a writer I once worked with who had such a neurotic attachment to his cat, Eliza, that he wouldn’t take a column photo unless it included her. Frankly, considering the writer’s accuracy problems, I would have been happy to let the cat write the column.

Cat owners, it seems to me, get away with murder. Dog owners are expected to keep their pet in restraints and scoop up the “gifts” they leave behind. Any dog owner who arrives in the park without a leash or the requisite number of bags is treated like a plague carrier. Cat owners, on the other hand, trade in anonymity and stealth, much like their pets. They let their cats sneak in and out, doing their dirty work and spreading their fleas.

“Well, not the cats I have been writing about,” said Leo Smith, the author of today’s Centerpiece story on this weekend’s Cat Fanciers Assn. show in Ventura. (Page 44) “Most of these cats are spectacular. They cost a fortune and they are treated like royalty.”

Of course Smith would say this; he’s a cat owner. But Valerie Kotas, who breeds and shows Birmans, also thinks show cats are fabulous, especially hers.

“Some people ask, ‘Why do you do this for a stupid cat?’ Well, they look great and their personality knocks my socks off,” she said.

Smith takes it one step further, perhaps one step too far. “Many of these show cats are so great,” he said, “that I’ll bet they even pick up after themselves.”

Elsewhere in today’s section, in his Theater Notes column (page 56) Todd Everett reviews two new productions, one in Moorpark, the other in Ojai, for local theatergoers looking for outstanding fare. And Jane Hulse writes about an event that celebrates the annual winter whale migration in her Jaunts column (Page 7).