“You can’t spell CATS without TS” Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson, and Benjamin Button were unlikely siblings. It was the love of one woman that made them a family. That woman happens to be Taylor Swift, an international icon. She is an award-winning singer-songwriter, captivating performer, successful businessperson, supporter of human rights, and of course, most important, a lover of cats. The cats’ story is also Taylor’s story. And her story is one of a happy, talented child who grew up in a supportive family and who loved animals. She’d had cats when she was younger—Eliehsen and Indy. Little is known about these beloved feline Swift predecessors (may they be living out the rest of their nine lives in a state of grace). They were family cats, though, different from the cat family Taylor went on to build.
Taylor has never been shy about proclaiming her love not just for her cats but for cats in general—and for this we adore her. Is it because they share so many qualities? Independent, observant, complicated, self-assured, attracted to shiny things . . . Taylor even attended cat school to prepare for a role in the movie version of Cats, a hit Broadway musical. By all accounts, she threw herself into the lessons and passed with flying colors—no surprise, really, because Taylor is very purr-ceptive.
It’s possible that cats have been helping Taylor in small ways as she traveled her career path, and not simply by being cute and snuggly (or charming and standoffish, as cats can, and have every right to, be). As she said in an early interview, it was a “‘dad video’ type of thing, with the cat chewing the neck of my [guitar] and stuff like that,” that helped Taylor get her first manager. One of her singersongwriter inspirations, Joni Mitchell, is also famously a “cat lady,” as is Patti Smith, a singer-songwriter and poet whose name is featured in the song “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Tapestry, an album by another hero of Taylor’s, Carole King, featured her tabby, Telemachus, prominently on the album cover.
In her almost two decades of being in the public eye, Taylor’s fashion, musical genres, and guys have come and gone, but her love of cats has been constant. As she herself has pointed out, you can’t spell cats without TS.
Copyright © 2025 by Farrin Jacobs; illustrated by Katty Huertas. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
