If you follow me on Twitter or read my comments on this site, you might have noticed that my gravatar is a Scottish fold kitten. The kitten is not mine – I jacked the image off the internet, just because I love Scottish fold kitties and I’ve always sort of wanted a Scottish fold companion (instead I have a massive 100-pound mutt who looks like a black bear and cries during thunderstorms).
Anyway, Taylor Swift now is the proud cat-mama of TWO Scottish folds. She got her first Scottish fold kitty a few years ago and named her Meredith Grey, after the character in Grey’s Anatomy. Her new kitten got another TV character name: Olivia Benson. As in, Detective Olivia Benson of Law & Order: SVU. What is this, 2006? I stopped watching L&O: SVU years ago, when the quality of the writing and the “OMG TWIST!” endings went to hell in a handbasket. But I guess Swifty is still a fan. And, I suppose, “Olivia” is a cute cat name. Welcome to SwiftyWorld, little Olivia. You’re going to see a lot of celebrity play-dates and some really twee things. But it will be fine. At least you weren’t adopted by Kim Kardashian (RIP Mercy Kardashian).
I’m including some of Swifty’s IG photos of Meredith, who looks like a pistol.
Photos courtesy of Taylor’s Instagram & Fame/Flynet.
Of course it is!
Utterly.
It’s funny how her older kitty’s ears “popped”. My little guy’s ears just did the same thing…they’re not quite as flat as they were when he was a baby. So cute.
FYI, my little 6.5 month old boy is now bigger than my 6-year-old! lol..he was the biggest kitten in the litter..
Yours are just adorable! I love looking at them.
Thanks, GNAT!
I know little about this breed. I only adopt shelter domestic cats. In any cat I’ve had, Meredith’s ears would reveal irritation. Is this the normal position when the ears have “popped”?
Well Scottish Folds are all born straight-eared and then some kittens’ ears will fold at 3 weeks and some will remain straight-eared (straight as in “regular” kitty ears). You could get an entire litter of “straight-eared” Folds or a litter of all “folded-ear” kitties.
The folded-ear ones sometimes have tighter folds (closer to the head) as kittens and then “pop” out a bit more as they get older. Both of mine did that.
The folded ear is a naturally-occurring cartilage defect so you can’t really tell how the ears will change as they grow older.
Man, I am like ALL over this thread…I could talk cats for hours…sorry guys..lol
This is so educational for me! I grew up with dogs, but I have met some wonderful cats over the years…I just don’t know anything about raising one or the differences in breeds.
You taught me the other day about the cats that have tons of toes. I had no idea there were so many unique breeds of cats!
I think it’s really funny when animals have normal human names! It cracks me up.
That kitty is so sweet.
Agreed, Patricia. My BFF lived next door to a cat called Alan for years, I never got over thinking that was hilarious.
Ha! That is pretty funny.
All my guys have people names. That way, when the neighbours hear me talking to them, they don’t think I’m completely nuts.
Alan, that’s so awesome. I laughed out loud at that one
My nanna had a dog called Luke, I always loved that. (not Star Wars related btw)
It is too freaking funny and I kinda wish I had gone that route when I adopted my guy (he’s named Pharaoh and oh my gawd does he act like one, lol). I can see myself now: “Gary, get over here now!” Hahahahaha.
My dog was named Dave. Best, weirdest dog EVER. Lived to be 18 and I miss him every day.
I like human names for pets too.
My hubby named our two hounds Rosco and Enos after The Dukes of Hazard-that kitten is beautiful
My kitty is Sammy Davis Jr. Because he’s a cool black cat.
(And a total goofball)
My Scottish Fold is cuter! LOL. His name’s Henry. He’s 4 months old. Took him home March 30th & have been walking him in East Village Parks for a few weeks now. He’s very popular!
Both of mine are cuter than yours! Just kidding 🙂
But they are the best pets ever right?
These are mine:
http://theoriginalkitten.tumblr.com/
Yes!!! Seriously adorable. Mine (Henry) is so adventurous! He licked some guy’s toe at the park last weekend. I think he’s probably gay. I could only have a gay kitten. So far I’ve never left him alone a night. I’m going away this weekend and a coworker is kitten sitting 🙂
Ha ha…awesome.
You take your cat to the park? And the cat doesn’t mind the open space? That’s awesome.
I would want to squeeze and kiss them all day long! cuuuuttte
Yes! yours are more adorable!
Those are gorgeous cats and the photos are really lovely!
THEY HAVE A TUMBLR! How did I not know this? Now I guess I’ll have to join so I can follow them. I was avoiding tumblr because, well, Hiddles-crazies, they scare me, but your two cuties will make it all OK.
Thanks guys!
Ok. i don’t love most cats but yours are frickin adorable. My hubby had a sack of fur that was 13 yrs old, named Carl, who was 26lbs and severly diabetic. Hubby found him in an alley when he was about 2 years old – he had been in a pretty bad fight with a rat (which is i’m guessing why he had a bad temperment). He was mean to everyone but hubs and was never playful like yours seemed to be. I was always jealous of other cat owners since this was my first experience living with a cat. He was basically a lump of fur on the living room chair who would occassionally walk to a food bowl or bite you. Carl has since passed and we have a german shepherd puppy named Otis whom is the cutest most playful thing ever. I would happily have cats again if they were like yours and got along with dogs.
I always get bummed when I hear people describe a bad experience with a cat. I grew up with amazing rescues. I guess I was lucky?
That being said, Folds are SO mellow and benign in disposition. They NEVER use their claws (except on my furniture) and they LOVE to be held and cuddled. I’ve converted four cat-haters so far with my little one. I think he should be a cat ambassador 🙂
I adore German Shepherds. One of my favorite breeds 🙂
@Chicagogurl, it helps to socialize cats when they’re kittens, similar to how it works for dogs. You can also adopt an adult cat (they’re often cheaper at shelters) whose temperament is already formed.
@TheOriginalKitten, kudos to you for not declawing your cat! I believe it’s considered inhumane to declaw in England. I have a relative who’s a vet in the Caymans, and she refuses to declaw as she considers it mutilation.
I would NEVER declaw my cats. EVER.
I could look at them all day.
Holy Moly those are beautiful kitties! I especially love the green and white polka dot tie! 🙂
O’Kitty, your cats are beautiful. No cats here, just dogs named Jake and Jeremiah.
omg Zizou! Want want want.
I’ll trade you a stinky tuxedo who talks to herself, spits her food everywhere and doesn’t know how to wash.
haha, cute! Look how the grey one is lying down! So sweet 🙂
My cats are gay. They are a couple named Tiger and Deadeye, both male, and they snuggle and cuddle all day long. 🙂
I have a Harry! He’s about nine months old, and is an orange tabby with an adorable overbite. My friends bought me a cat stroller, so Harry and his two roommates go strolling through the park with us. I think Harry is the cutest thing that ever happened, but I can freely admit that many, many people’s cats are cuter than my cat, Chicken. She is … special.
What kind of kitty stroller? Do you ever get scared that they’ll jump out and run away?
Ahhh so much cuteness!
She seems like a good cat owner 🙂
She does seem like a good cat owner. The older cat looks totally comfy and happy so that’s a good thing.
Now she has a new friend in New York!
Oh my god this post is just for me.
So cute! As an owner of two Foldies, I can say that two are definitely better than one 🙂
I’m so happy to see her kitties didn’t go the way of Mercy Kardashian (RIP) and I give Swifty so much props for genuinely loving her cats.
I should flee before the judgmental “SHE SHOULD ADOPT A RESCUE!!” comments start.
I just have to say this: ADOPTING A RESCUE DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MAKE YOU A GREAT PET OWNER. It just doesn’t. Just because a person “saved” a cat from a shelter doesn’t guarantee that person will take great care of that pet and give it everything it needs.
My cats are indoor cats, have all their shots, are spayed/neutered, and FYI, I spent $2,000 last month on my cat’s hospitalization for acute kidney failure. I would do ANYTHING for my cats. ANYTHING. Plenty of shelter cats who get adopted end up out on the streets, back in a shelter, or dead because they don’t receive the proper care from their owners.
Also, FTR I donate $200 every year to my local animal rescue league and volunteered at a shelter all through high school and grew up with shelter cats.
So please just STOP with the judgment.
Non-snark question: does the fact that they are foldies mean that they aren’t likely rescue? (because they are in demand?)
Not rescue. From a breeder.
But you can get Foldie rescues here (they just never have any available in the area where I live, always like the mid-west or Cali):
http://scottishfoldrescue.org/
My friend found her fold at the pound! His name was Gavin. I babysat for him sometimes. He was amazing. Huge, fluffy, and an attention whore. He would sit up on his hind legs and wave at you when he wanted attention. She took him back to the pound after she had a baby and I never quite forgave her (even though he was adopted right away, naturally).
As long as Meredith is alive and well, then a second one is a great idea. At least, unlike Miley, she didn’t go out and get herself a second animal with predatory instincts and then act all surprised when the inevitable occurred.
Lol when I saw the headline, my first thought was what happened to the other one???
But all is well in swiftly cat land so this is fine
All I could think of was the description of Kaiser’s dog, cause that was my ex-husband to a T. I love the Folds, but Olivia Benson? Jesus, that cat is gonna get pap’d wearing a tiny badge that says “Officer Cutie” or something. Do you think they will have matching outfits? I know that ho is cooking up some tuna jam in a mason jar. Good luck, Det. Benson. At least you didn’t get jacked by a Kardashian. They have no mercy, that clan.
I don’t even have a cat and I love cat photos. The last one of the cat rolling over is adorable.
The kitten is adorable.
And this is not necessarily to be mean… but does this girl have anything else to do than famewhore herself all over social media all day long and get papped coming out of her house? Is she bored?!?!? Is she lonely???
She’s not dating anyone. She’s not stalking anyone. That’s good
She’s worked hard for years. I’m not going to judge her for spending free time in the city doing nothing but pap walks, shopping and hanging with her cats.
It’s nice that her free time isn’t spent falling out of bars or something. I’d rather have my daughter look up to swifty than a lot of other starlets
I’m not particularly hating on her… the girl has accomplished a lot by the age of 25, and I can only imagine that she sits down and thinks to herself “what next???”
It just seems like she’s always out getting photographed eating lunch with someone or just not doing anything. I guess I just wondered if she had anything else going on.
PS – She’s not dating anyone b/c no one wants a break up song written about them!
She just finished a month-long tour of Asia and she’s been writing and recording her new album which will be out in October. The first single will probably drop next month.
The paps are parked outside her home. They know she’s there as they know all the celebrity’s schedules and they wait for her to leave. Taylor Swift is not trying to make it in Hollywood because she’s already wildly successfu. There is no reason whatsoever for her to call the paps because she’s already there. She doesn’t need exposure. I don’t call walking out of her building, shopping, or showing us a photo of her darling new pet “famewhoring.”
Cat L…
Kitty!!!!!
So funny and I love it when animals have human or celebrity names…My sister has a dachshund named Adrian Brody because he has a long nose and brown eyes.
A Cat Called Norton – if you love the Scottish Folds, it’s a great book. you WILL cry at bits in the series though, that’s all I’ma saying. It’s a autobiographical bit of reading about a man who really really didn’t want a cat, and in the end – a cat got him.
Now, if ya’ll won’t mind, thanks for kicking off the yearning again, I’m off to repolish my hard sell to my husband to get a Scottish Fold. Soon. They are usually quite small, and I’m thinking a new friend for Pandora NOW, before I get pregnant is the way to go to let her get used to an interloper in her world.
And yes. I’m actually and honestly campaigning to essentially get my cat a pet. Don’t poke the crazy, it’s been a long day already and momma needs something fuzzy to cuddle.
Have you ever read The Cat Who Went to Paris, A Cat Abroad and The Cat Who’ll Live Forever by Peter Gethers? Both about his first Scottish Fold..the last one made me cry like a baby.
It’s actually the true story version of the following series (I have a feeling we’re both talking about the exact same portion of the story when it comes to bawling – I made the mistake of rereading the ending shortly after my Willow was murdered, and sobbed like a nutter long enough to kick off a migraine that lasted 2 days.). I couldn’t for the life of me remember the authors name, but yeah, same story – the one I named is a more condensed first version of what then goes on to become a really excellent short series! You totally made my dad, knowing someone else knows the books!
I’m definitely gonna have to read the ones you mentioned! I loved his earlier ones 🙂
Okay, here I come with it….TAYLOR, YOU TWIT, PLEASE ADOPT A KITTEN FROM A SHELTER! Her doing so would be great publicity for shelter pets. I’m sure “Scottish Folds” (eye-roll) are lovely cats but c’mon!
People already know that shelters exist.
If a little girl is going to adopt a cat from a shelter just because Taylor Swift did, then she probably isn’t mature or responsible enough to own a cat, period.
FYI, 25% of all people got their pet from a family member. 24% from an adoption organization or shelter. 19% picked up a stray (more common for cats than dogs) and 12% from a purebred breeder (much higher among dogs than cats). Only 8% of people say they got their pets from a pet store.
The vast majority of people are not getting their cats from breeders. It’s really not the epidemic that people want to make it out to be.
Wish more people used common sense and instead of screaming about people buying purebreds, invested that energy in emphasizing the importance of people neutering/spaying their cats/dogs, which is really the root cause of animals ending up in shelters in the first place.
ADOPT FROM A SHELTER and SPAY/NEUTER YOUR PETS!
Another reason to adopt from shelters – in some states, animal research labs are given the right to go to county shelters and claim the animals to test on. Absolutely horrific fact.
Ok fair enough. I surrender.
Shelter animals are wonderful (as I said, I grew up with them) and I certainly don’t think my cats are any better just because I bought them from a breeder, but I love my cats and I don’t regret getting them for a second.
I think it’s great to adopt but I think it’s more important to take care of your pets properly regardless of where/how you got them, and to be a loving and responsible owner.
@mayamae-that is HORRIFIC. I can’t…how is this legal? Do you know which states?
I don’t know which states. Back when I had the luxury, I gave tons of money to animal charities including anti-vivisection societies. I used to read all of the literature and look at all the pictures. It became so disturbing to me that I dwelled on it to the point of fixation. I can never get those pictures out of my mind. Therefore, I stopped reading the literature. My mom lives with me and accidentally opened up something PETA sent me. I heard her gasp loudly and thought something bad had happened. She said – Do not read this. You don’t want to read this. The problem is – someone needs to. A number of people who didn’t know about this just learned from my post that it happens.
I thought I had a responsibility to know all these things so I could go make cogent and informed arguments regarding animal rights. It is just too deeply disturbing for me.
I know that in California, if shelters sell to animal research labs, they are required to post a sign informing people of it. So in some states the shelters profit financially by selling dogs into the hell of research labs. In county shelters in Georgia, it is clearly stated that once you sign the surrender, they may take your pet back and immediately euthanize it.
Sorry for the overly long spiel – animals are my passion.
Thank you, OK (may I refer to you as OK?) for those stats. I worked at an animal hospital years ago, and part of what you said rang so very true- simply being rescued from a shelter is no guarantee an animal will have an amazing life. The things I witnessed first-hand…a puppy crawled out of a window at a house across the street from the clinic where I worked, while the owners were away. Another dog, owned by the same kids (late teens, early twenties, irresponsible children either way) was hit by a car, I assume after it had run away from them. They had it tied out with a literal chain, like the kind one might use for a swing, around its neck. All these dogs were rescue dogs. And they all would have been better off being euthanized than being allowed to be adopted by those irresponsible, thoughtless and uncaring kids, that would replace them one after another. The dog that was hit, they got from us. After I noticed it had been killed, they were put on a list (that looking back, consisted of just them) of “do not allow these people to adopt.” A few days after the hbc, they came in wanting yet another dog. I don’t like lying, but I’ll never regret the one I told that day. Never.
On the flip side, several years ago, my fiance and I were considering getting a rescue dog from local animal control. That was a joke. All the dogs were covered in mange, the guy running it was taking a nap when we entered the facility, and he outright told us, if he had it his way, he’d shoot or drown all the cats, as “they’re dumb ol, useless cats.” Something there was dumb, old and useless, alright, but it wasn’t of the feline variety.
@mayamae, I can relate! I can’t watch peta videos or read the mail, and that damn Sarah MacLachlan…It all hurts my heart too much. I was a wreck for weeks after reading Dewey the Library Cat. I sobbed over that one during the first vacation my fiance and I ever took. The.whole.time. I’m a sensitive wimp 😉
As I’ve said above, my friend got a Fold from the pound, and there are plenty of rescue groups for Folds. Just because an animal is purebred doesn’t mean it’s not a rescue. Oh and my BFF got a purebred SIAMESE from the pound, because she knew if she bought a cat I would club her (she also did not declaw her cat under threat of clubbing from me. However, she insists on letting him outside unattended despite my protests. “He doesn’t go far. He can take care of himself.” They always can. Until they’re hit by a car or eaten by a hawk.)
I have two huge black cats (seriously, 18 lbs & 15 lbs) and they are total beasts but I love them beyond reason. So I will snark on T.Swift for many things, but not for being totally into her cats.
OMG so cute!!!!!!!!!! Adorable kitties! I want them both!
I just love cats and those two kitties are so adorable! I wish I was on instagram so I could see more pictures of Taylor Swift’s cats. They’re precious. I wonder if Karl Lagerfeld’s kitty Choupette is on instagram. I’d love to see her beautiful face on a regular basis.
In defense of the name Olivia Benson – there was a time when Mariska Haritay was the highest paid woman on television. I thought that was pretty cool because Olivia was a successful strong woman who was single by choice.
Today, Sophia Vergara is the highest paid woman in television. I enjoy her character, but she’s pretty much a dunce with huge boobs who landed an old rich guy.
I think I will name my next cat “Annoying Celebrity”, or maybe “Pretentious Biznitch”.