Pet hall of fame

After my wife’s conversion, ours includes cats

When I first met my wife, she wasn’t a “cat person.” She grew up in a family with dogs, and they were her “go to” pets.

When I grew up, we had a farm overflowing with animals — cats, a dog, cattle and chickens, along with the occasional horse and pig.

My wife’s dogs had the run of her house. They were part of the family, and she talks about the ones that were standouts — Big Dog, CB, Elvis — as she describes their escapades during the long small-town Texas summers.

Animals on our farm, though, were there for a purpose rather than entertainment. The cattle were there to provide food or breed, with their calves sold each year to help pay our bills. The chickens produced eggs to eat, the pigs typically wound up in our freezer, and we always kept one cow to provide our milk each day. The horses were my sisters’ youth agriculture projects, the cats lived in the barn and chased down mice and rats, and the dog was the intruder alarm system.

Anyway, when we married, my wife politicked constantly for a dog. But dogs need lots of attention, and since we both worked outside the home, that wasn’t possible. So I suggested instead that we get a cat, because they sleep most of the day anyway. And so we did.

Our first cat was friendly and loving, but it developed a serious problem that led to a week’s stay at an emergency vet facility. The cat recovered after a long and expensive stay, and when it came home, it loved us just the same.

But it hated — and I do mean hated — everyone else. Which was fine because we didn’t have a lot of visitors back then anyway.

Its eventual replacement has a place in my wife’s pet hall of fame: Spike trailed my wife throughout the house as first one son, and then another, was born and grew. It was common to see all four of them (my wife, two tiny sons and the cat) clambered together in a rocking chair, watching Winnie the Pooh at two in the morning when one son was sick and the other couldn’t sleep.

That cat wanted to be in the middle of everything; he was “Nana Kitty,” the self-appointed third parent. We rescued it from the SPCA primarily because when our almost 2-year-old saw the cat, he accidentally picked it up with an under-the-neck chokehold, and the cat just hung there like a rag doll, enjoying the attention.

Spike lived with us 13 years, until his little body finally gave out.

DISTRIBUTION PH/214.560.4203

ADVERTISING PH/214.560.4203 office administrator: JUDY LILES

214.560.4203 / jliles@advocatemag.com display sales manager: BRIAN BEAVERS

214.560.4201 / bbeavers@advocatemag.com senior advertising consultant: AMY DURANT

214.560.4205 / adurant@advocatemag.com senior advertising consultant: KRISTY GACONNIER

214.560.4213 / kgaconnier@advocatemag.com advertising consultants

CATHERINE PATE

214.292.0494 / cpate@advocatemag.com

NORA JONES

214.292.0962 / njones@advocatemag.com

FRANK McCLENDON

214.560.4215 / fmcclendon@advocatemag.com classified manager: PRIO BERGER

214.560.4211 / pberger@advocatemag.com classified consultant

SALLY ACKERMAN

214.560.4202 / sackerman@advocatemag.com marketing director: L AUREN SHAMBECK

214.292.0486 / lshambeck@advocatemag.com

EDITORIAL PH/ 214.292.2053 publisher: RICK WAMRE

214.560.4212 / rwamre@advocatemag.com managing editor: CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB

214.560.4204 / chughes@advocatemag.com senior editor: KERI MITCHELL

214.292.0487 / kmitchell@advocatemag.com editors:

MONICA S. NAGY

214.292.2053 / mnagy@advocatemag.com

RACHEL STONE

214.292.0490 / rstone@advocatemag.com

B RITTANY N UNN

Now, as I write this column, our two cats (both rescued from local shelters, one after a car accident claimed its front left leg when it was 12 weeks old) are curled up next to my wife. They’re purring and occasionally stirring a bit just to make sure they’re not missing anything.

My wife is now a cat person. She claims she can look at the cats’ faces and tell what they’re thinking.

I look at their faces, and all I see are two round eyes staring back. I’m sure there’s something going on back there, but I choose not to worry about it.

If they’re hungry or thirsty, they let us know. And they’re no longer animals or even pets. Instead, they’re always hanging around with us, just like family.

Because that’s what they are.

214.635.2122 / bnunn@advocatemag.com associate editor: LAURI VALERIO

214.635.2120 / lvalerio@advocatemag.com senior art director: JYNNETTE NEAL

214.560.4206 / jneal@advocatemag.com designers: JEANINE MICHNA-BALES, LARRY OLIVER, KRIS SCOTT, MIKE LEE contributing editors: JEFF SIEGEL, SALLY WAMRE contributors: GAYLA BROOKS, SEAN CHAFFIN, GEORGE MASON, BLAIR MONIE, ELLEN RAFF photo editor: CAN TüRKYILMAZ

214.560.4200 / turk@advocatemag.com director of multimedia: DANNY FULGENCIO

469.916.7866 / dfulgencio@advocatemag.com photographers: MARK DAVIS, ALISON FECHTEL, JEANINE MICHNA-BALES intern: BETH DIDION, VIRGINIA MORENO

Advocate Publishing 6301 Gaston Avenue, Suite 820, Dallas, TX 75214

Advocate, © 2011, is published monthly by East Dallas Lakewood People Inc. Contents of this magazine may not be reproduced. Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for the content of all advertisements printed, and therefore assume responsibility for any and all claims against the Advocate. The publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any editorial or advertising material. Opinions set forth in the Advocate are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the publisher’s viewpoint. More than 200,000 people read Advocate publications each month. Advertising rates and guidelines are available upon request. Advocate Publications are available free of charge throughout our neighborhoods, one copy per reader.

Advocate was founded in 1991 by Jeff Siegel, Tom Zielinski and Rick Wamre.

High dollar hope for Jefferson Boulevard

“Most of our efforts will be on activating the storefronts and what’s happening there on the sidewalk. … We want to embrace and cater to the Hispanic demographic that exists there. … It’s not going to happen all at once. It took Bishop Arts quite some time. It’s going to happen organically.”

—JimLake Jr. on an $8 million plan to renovate Jefferson Tower and retail spaces in the 300 block of Jefferson Boulevard, excerpted from oakcliff.advocatemag.com

Find additional Jefferson Boulevard news on page 11.