Life with 21 cats is noisy, chaotic and ‘wonderful’

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, April 10, 2004

The cat lady — virtually every city has one.

The term conjures up all sorts of images, both good and bad.

Sharon Demur of Everett is a cat lady, but only by the numbers.

Demur, 57, has more licensed cats than any other cat owner in Everett — 21 at last count. But she has a crew of cats because she’s a breeder of international award-winning British shorthairs.

Apart from the posse of cats and feline paraphernalia in her home, everything about Demur dispels the cat lady stereotype.

The petite, athletic woman lives in a sizable home in the upscale Boulevard Bluffs neighborhood. She has a master’s degree in biology, a full-time job at Home Depot and runs a video production business on the side.

Her sturdy British shorthaired kittens, which look like "bulldogs in cat suits," fetch upward of $650 each. She hasn’t personally been showing her cats much lately, but in 1999 her cat Ravenswing Angelica — Sweetie for short — placed seventh worldwide in an International Cat Association show.

Demur and her fellow breeders call them the "Ah-nold Schwarzenegger of cats. "Just solid muscle," she said. "Little weight lifters."

At her home last week, Demur wandered from room to room, loading the washer with cat beds and tidying up.

"Everywhere I go, I’m followed by a herd," she said of the gray and white kitties in her wake.

Demur said she takes the responsibility of caring for so many cats very seriously. She worries about who would take care of them should anything happen to her.

"They’re my family, now that my mom’s gone and my dad’s gone. They’re what I’ve got left," she said.

Living with a couple of dozen cats and kitties can be a lot of work, as well as noisy and chaotic. Demur sometimes wears earplugs to bed.

"Yeah, they can drive you crazy," she said.

It’s hard to give up the kittens she raises to those who buy them. She can’t imagine life without them.

"You fall in love with all of them. They’re beautiful," she said. "They’re independent, yet loving. I’ve been really blessed to have some wonderful companions."

Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.