Well this article certainly made me feel a bit more manly. I, as some may know, am a cat owner, and as a result, take some flack every now and again for people…well from insecure people that just want to try and get under my skin. Note to those people, it doesn’t really work.

I had cats all growing up (one lived to be 23 years old…true story), and a dog too. And hamsters, and even a rabbit in the house as well. I just was always a pets and animal person, and a couple of years ago when I wanted a pet, the cat was a logical choice. I live in the city, I am gone about 10 hours a day, and travel enough where having a dog just wouldn’t be feasible. As much as I would love another black lab or other big fun dog, I’d just feel terrible leaving it home alone all day long, and it would be a pain in the ass when I traveled away for more than a day or two. So enter the cat.

The way it all went down was pretty straightforward. We popped on Craigslist, found a litter of kittens for the taking, and chose a tiny (I think he was the runt) all black kitten that we decided to call Cat Stevens (clever, I know). Though he mainly goes by “kitty” as in “NO KITTY!“.

So far it’s been great. The cat is a nut, totally hilarious and full of personality. Aside from being generally social and all up in everything all of the time, he runs full speed around the apartment, sleeps on your head, greets you at the door when you come home, and loves to play and hang out with anyone and everyone that comes by. I even thought about trying to teach him to use the toilet, until it turned out he wanted to swim in the toilet, not crap in it. He loves water…go figure.

Anyways, the NY Times article I thought was interesting at the least, and gave some new perspective on the male cat-owner thing. I think they played up the anti-dog owner stuff a bit too much, which I don’t agree with at all, and of course they had to have the requisite crazy cat man angle, but all in all it was pro-dudes-with-cats, which I thought was solid.

“They make the best boyfriends because they’re totally cool with staying home and watching a movie,” said Elizabeth Daza, 28, a video producer in Manhattan, who dated a cat-owning man for eight years. “Straight men with cats seem to be really secure and stable. They don’t need to be running around the park and proving their masculinity like the dog guys.”

On a practical level, cats are easier, male owners say — especially if they (the men) travel a lot. They can leave the cat alone for days on end, and the cat will survive.

So say what you will, but I have a cat, and I think he’s pretty cool.