Lena Dunham has found a solution for loneliness: cats. Sharing her home with five of them, she delights in their different personalities and the joy their antics bring. We start at the beginning, with her first cat, Elegance—who turned Dunham into a proud cat lady—and follow the journey as one became a full-fledged pack, each new arrival adding a layer of comfort to Dunham’s life.
But like any good cat lady, I realized: We may all be human, but who says our friends have to be? Just like there’s always a backstabbing, troublemaking entity in any reality TV girl gang, a cat brings the side-eye, the discontent, the flare for the dramatic. My husband, Luis, and I were already living with two dogs, Ingrid (California Gurl) and Cornichon (Welsh). I figured I could build a friend group as dynamic in its range as any of the ones I was following, replete with the hot girl, the slattern, the upwardly mobile homosexual, the token straight guy, and the business bitch. Little did I know that just as British people do not behave like us Americans, neither do British cats.
More picks on cats
The Menagerie Lurking in Rural America
“Not far from my Ohio hometown, a notorious tragedy shook America. Years later, its legacy lives and breathes—and occasionally runs away.”
The Cat’s Meat Man
“As cats evolved from feral ratters into beloved Victorian companions, a nascent pet-food economy arose on the carts of so-called ‘cat’s meat men.’
I Am Cat Lady
“Cats sense grief, a friend tells me, and move toward it.”
A Beloved Alley Cat Now Lives in the Watergate. Was She Kidnapped, or Rescued?
“This is the saga of Kitty Snows, street queen of Foggy Bottom, and the neighbors who are fighting over her.”
“Diana’s Piano” And All The Cats I’ve Loved And Lost
“The years I’ve spent with these cats—with Detective in our house, with Walker in a small apartment, with Mango on the porch next door—is worth all the feelings of loss.”
Cat Fight
“Altruism gone wrong in New York City’s cat rescue community.”
