“I thought you were a dog person.”

That’s what my friend said last year after I told him I was the happy owner of two kittens.

For much of my life I would’ve agreed with him.

And I would’ve been wrong.

When I was young, my parents finally relented to ongoing pleas for a dog by allowing a white Chihuahua-Terrier mix into our home.

Though hardly a dog person’s dog, I identified myself as such, dismissing cat ownership as a non-manly enterprise.

Throughout the years I likely chimed in on cat-bashing when the topic arose.

When I later married, my wife and I ended up with a Lab-Chow mix that was with us for fourteen years. We later found Jasper, our Chesapeake Bay Retriever (pictured above), when our first dog together had passed.

The funny thing was that cats seemed to like me…and I actually liked them. I just wouldn’t admit that I did.

Unfortunately, I had given in to some sort of external pressure or concept that men shouldn’t like cats.

Luckily this false belief was able to dissolve away over time. (I don’t think of myself as a dog or cat person now. I think all animals are pretty awesome. Especially Nigerian Dwarf Goats – here and here.)

We all take on beliefs and opinions that originate from others, without fully investigating their validity. It’s part of our ongoing growth to habitually review, process and adjust based on our own values.

Let’s be the people we are and not worry about what the rest are thinking.

And now, the obligatory ‘awwwww’ kitten photo (from last summer):

And here’s the kitten story if you’re interested:

Last summer, my wife was walking Jasper when a cat came out of nowhere, flew through the air, and clamped onto Jasper’s backside before racing off.

Turns out that this stray had a litter nearby and was being a protective mother. We found a pile of weeks old kittens under a bush.

When the mother started moving them around five weeks old, a neighbor took the litter into her home and we visited them there.

My wife had a cat when we first met and had always wanted another. My allergy-prone brother was the main obstacle – but he lives in California and, with three children, plane fare to Maryland is expensive and prohibitive to visiting.

So I said we should think about taking a kitten. In fact, I said we should take two and picked those two.

My wife was fairly stunned and suggested taking only one. For some strange reason (which I still can’t explain) I insisted on two, even saying it was “two or none.”

It’s been almost a year since we brought Oberon (gray) and Tyberius (ginger) home and have no regrets.

Tagged as: cat person, dog person