If you ask my husband Jim how he feels about Chester, our Maine Coon mixed breed male cat and Bandit, our female Tortoiseshell, he might likely respond with a resounding “Real men like cats!”
Jim is among a growing number of men who don’t mind declaring their fondness for their companion cats. He even unabashedly posts videos and photos of them on our Instagram site.
History has revealed some famous men who also happened to bond with their cats.
Take Isaac Newton, for one, who discovered the laws of gravity and universal motion. During his studies at Cambridge University, this cat fan discovered that his cats were interrupting his studies by wanting in and out. Newton cut two holes in the door, one for the mother cat and one for her kittens. For being such a smart dude, he didn’t realize that the kittens would simply follow their mother through her hole.
Another famous cat guy, Mark Twain, had many quotes regarding his feline companions. One of his most famous was “if man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but deteriorate the cat.”
There are many contemporary famous men who have also flaunted their love of cats. A small sampling of these cool guys (I say “cool”, because if they like cats, they are cool, and that is that) are: Ricky Gervais; Ian Somerhalder; John Hamm; and ex-President George W. Bush. Indeed, there is now a popular a cat dude by the name of Jackson Galaxy who has his own cat centric show, “Cat From Hell”, a weekly series showcasing Jackson’s innate talent for solving cat behavioral problems to create happier human/feline households.
It could be that this (great) trend of increasing male cat “literacy” is occurring because men have evolved to the point where they now feel comfortable admitting they prefer “cats” over “dogs”. Perhaps another contributing factor is the growing number of single men who have discovered that they like the companionship of a cat or two. Then, it could be that men like the “low maintenance” feature of cats over other types of pets. No matter what the reason, one thing is for sure: real men like cats!
