The Ins and Outs of Being a Crazy Cat Lady

“Being a crazy cat lady is something I own like a badge of honor” said Anya Landi “I make sure people don’t forget. It’s why I made it my username.” Landi and her family have three cats, Midnight, Dino, and Tula. Their two other cats passed away. “I have had them since I could remember. I can’t imagine my life without them.”

As a twenty-year-old, Landi may not seem like the kind of person people think of when talking about crazy cat ladies. Stereotypes have us think about an older woman who lives alone and has a hoard of cats. Landi, an outgoing woman with dyed pink hair, doesn’t fit this description but she embraces the category.

Cat lady stereotypes began in medieval Europe to shame women for breaking social norms, according to the American Animal Hospital Association, Women with cats targeted because of black cats’ association with witchcraft.

Vice President JD Vance perpetuated this stereotype with his 2021 comment criticizing Democratic women when he said the U.S. was being run, “by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

Turns out men like cats too. In 2024, MARS, a pet parent study, reported more than 52% of cat owners were men and over 60% of total cat owners were married. And as of 2026, the number of households that have cats have reached 46.5 million.

Theresa Corrado would never consider herself a crazy cat lady. She grew up with two dogs, Terry and Anthony, and she didn’t think about cats. But the 53-year-old has helped the strays in her backyard in the Throggs Neck Section of the Bronx for years.  She met one of her closest friends, Michelle Sieber, who also helps cats and bonds with strays.

Sieber is a 59 year-old, married, with a daughter and doesn’t mind if people call her a crazy cat lady. Three of her cats live in her house and she has three more in her yard. She has always owned cats and seeks out people for friends who love cats as much as she does.

“All the pictures on my phone are of them and I got a t-shirt saying about how it’s the best way to live. And my daughter is just as bad, especially when it comes to taking care of strays.” Sieber said.

The women enjoy talking about cats and their quirks. Michelle Siebert easily made friends with one of Corrado’s difficult cats. “Michelle kept asking me about my cat Skittish and to this day, Michelle is the one of the only people Skittish isn’t scared of,”

The women we talked with agree that someone who is a genuine crazy cat lady has to be a cat whisperer and a lover of animals. Landi, who doesn’t know Michelle and Theresa, shares this feeling. Her youngest cat, Midnight, doesn’t warm up to people. But Landi created a bond with the cat right away. The cat might hiss others away but when Landi gets home from school, she is always waiting at the door ready to greet her.

“Finding cats everywhere and saying hello is a part of my nature. I swear I can read the cats mind sometimes.” said Sieber