Simone Reddington

The relationship between humans and our pets is one that has existed around the world since the prehistoric age.  Archaeologists have found evidence from just after the Ice Age, over 120,000 years ago of dogs that had been domesticated by human.  In Ancient Egypt, cats were seen as holy animals that were associated with deity.  Pharaohs were often buried with their feline companions, in the hope that they would be reunited in the Afterlife.  Today, there is an estimated one billion pet animals around the world (healthforanimals.org, 2022) and a study from the PDSA this year found that half of the population in the UK own a pet.  However, there is one group of pet-owners that are often ridiculed in society; single, childless women who enjoy the company of cats.  Owning a cat was one of the many reasons that a woman could be tried for witchcraft during the Middle Ages, and this societal fear is still felt across society today through the stereotype of the ‘crazy cat lady’ who surrounds herself with cats as she is apparently undesirable to men and has turned mentally ill because of that.  

Dawn O’Porter challenges this stereotype in her 2022 novel Cat Lady, which I devoured this weekend. Although I have been aware of the popular Scottish writer’s work for a while, this is the first of her books I have read.  The protagonist, Mia, is a woman in her forties who is absolutely devoted to her pet cat Pigeon.  Within the first few chapter the reader is introduced to some of the trauma that Mia has faced within the first few chapters; she lost her mother to cancer as a young child, her father was emotionally abusive, and her husband maintains a complicated relationship with his ex-wife, with whom he shares a son and a hatred towards Mia’s beloved cat. When Mia finds a pet bereavement support group, she begins to understand her past in a way she never has before.  

O’Porter’s witty and hilarious writing had me hooked to the pages of Cat Lady, and I loved the way she wrote characters that represent the different types of people who we have all come across in modern-day Britain.  I particularly loved the way she described Mia’s insufferable colleagues at the jewellery business she works, whom I could picture and compare to similar people in real life that I’ve worked with. She celebrates eccentricities in a way that resonates with anyone who has ever felt that they don’t belong anywhere without appearing corny or unauthentic.  A treat to read.