Cats & Dolls - by guest blogger Milady Blue

I'm pleased to introduce to you to our first guest blogger, Milady Blue. More than any other doll collector I know, she is probably the premier expert on collecting both dolls and cats. And when I say this, it really means a lot--since I also have a tendency to collect both.

If you're a doll collector and own a cat, this article is for you.

Cats & Dolls

by Milady Blue

Special Guest Writer

There are about a million sites about cats, run by folks calling themselves catslaves. One thing I have not yet encountered, in the cat groups I belong to, have been fellow catslaves who are also doll collectors. Cats, like people, are unique creatures. For all those reports “scientists” regularly publish, indicating people anthropomorphize their pets–meaning, they give the cat a humanlike trait or traits–my own experience is that cats do have many distinct humanlike personality traits.

Then, of course, are the little personality quirks that are all their own.

I am the property of three cats – Sunday the Hutt, Camas Houdini Meadows, and Stormcloud the Moscow Marauder. Sunday the Hutt was a wild thing when she was a kitten, but she has settled down in her dotage, leaving most of the insanity to the brothers Camas and Stormy, who are competing for “Alpha Goofball.”

While straightening up one day, I was moving my Barbies around, and dropped one on the floor. I had wondered why Camas and Stormy were in the doorway, watching my every move. I turned around to pick up the doll I had dropped, only to find no doll on the floor. I was puzzled, and looked to make sure I was not grinding the poor doll under my wheelchair when I heard a squabble from the doorway.

Sitting there, like a pair of lions crouched over a kill, were Camas and Stormy. Between them lay the missing Barbie. Stormy busted Camas a good one right in the chops, grabbed the doll by the hair, and dragged her from the room. Fortunately, I managed to get my giggling fit under control long enough to go out into the living room and rescue the poor doll from a terrible/weird fate: the cat toy.

Ever since, Camas and Stormy have been utterly fascinated with my dolls, and will do everything to get hold of one or more. My brother thinks it's because the cats are attracted to the dolls' hair.

On the doll boards, forums and groups I frequent, people post pictures or stories of their cats all the time. Some people, like me, have to be extra vigilant with their dolls, or in some cases, doll accessories, when their cats are prowling, and others only have the usual annoyances to worry about, such as cat fur everywhere.

I have yet to find any rhyme or reason in why some cats are interested in dolls or accessories and others are not. Age, breed, personality, temperament – there is no typical profile for a doll-loving cat as of

this writing. I have taken to calling mine the “Cute, Fuzzy, Doll-Seeking Missiles of Mass Destruction” because of the potential for disaster with Camas and Stormy. My friend Alison’s kitten Nico is utterly taken with the natural hair wigs on her BJDs, and he will proudly bring his “kills” to her, after stalking and subduing his “prey.”