Cat dads, this one is for you

A man in a gray t-shirt lies stretched out at home with an orange tabby right alongside him. He's grinning like someone with nowhere else to be and no plans to find one.

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What cat dads do isn't complicated. They feed the cat. They stay up when the cat isn't feeling well. They cuddle when the cat asks, and they get cuddled back on the days they need it. Most of them never make a show of it.

Readers fill in the rest with stories of their own. One remembers a grandfather who was a cat dad long before it was fashionable. He listened for the cats going about their business so he could clean up right away, and if they weren't eating enough, he rolled little balls of mincemeat to them. Another remembers her husband letting kittens sleep on him in his recliner and asking her to bring his dinner so he wouldn't have to get up and disturb them.

And then there are the women, a good many of them, who want it known that a man who loves cats is exactly the kind of man they are after. Some already have one. Some are still looking. The most-liked line of all is short. It just wishes more men loved cats, and judging by the grin on the man with the tabby, that would be no hardship.