Men coming out of the cat closet
Cats & Bros calendar contest aims to celebrate the friendships between men and their cherished feline pets
Bubbles is a cat man — and he’s purrowd of it.
“People are always going on about dogs, but dogs don’t do it for me — I like kitties,” the unabashed cat fancier says from his feline-filled shed in Nova Scotia’s Sunnyvale Trailer Park.
“They dole out the love, you know? There’s nothing better than a kitty coming up and rubbing his face on you when you’re trying to sleep . . . I just find cats to be a lot smarter, you know. Dogs — they’d follow you right off a cliff.”
The Trailer Park Boys star, whose real name is Mike Smith, along with his 18year-old rescue cat, Vince the Pince, is the poster boy of the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies’ Cats & Bros photo contest. “Lucy came up and said, ‘Hey! Do you wanna be the ambassador of the kitty cat program?’ ” Bubbles says of cat-loving co-star Lucy DeCoutere.
“Whatever I can do to help kitties, I’ll do it.”
The federation, which represents humane societies and SPCAs across Canada, is encouraging men across the country to snap photos of themselves with their best feline friend, then write a blurb about their purrmance. People can then vote at catsandbros.com for their favourite pair. The top 13 entrants will be featured as pin-up models in the federation’s 2016 Cats & Bros calendar.
“We want to break down the crazy cat lady stereotype,” CEO Barbara Cartwright says. “More and more men are literally coming out of the cat closet.”
Nearly 100 bros have entered thus far, including 23-year-old Igor Aldomar — one of 16 contestants from Toronto.
“She’s more like a dog — she’ll fetch!” Aldomar, who’s currently sitting in the middle of the pack with 27 votes, says of his cat, Marbles. “Last year, I needed to get open heart surgery,” Aldomar adds. “She kept me calm.”
Each vote costs $1 and the federation has already raised more than $9,600 of its $20,000 goal. The funds will go toward the federation’s cat welfare program, increasing access to low-cost spay/ neuter programs as well as helping boost the number of shelters’ cat adoptions. Voting ends Tuesday at 9 p.m.
According to the federation, Canada has a cat overpopulation crisis. With 10.2 million cats in the country, they are our most popular pets, yet are much less likely than dogs to receive veterinary care, have permanent identification or be reunited with their owners if lost.
“As a culture, we treat them as throwaways,” Cartwright says. “We need to start looking for ways to increase the value of cats.”
Back in Sunnyvale, more than a third of the park’s cats died during this year’s harsh winter, actress Lucy DeCoutere says. “Spay your cats, neuter your cats and be awesome to them,” she told the Star between filming.
“Bob Barker’s been saying it for years, and he can’t be lying,” Bubbles pipes in.
“The price is right, Bubs.”