Everyone knows the mantra “dogs are a man’s best friend”, but what about cats? Like any pet, humans find a world of solace and comfort in the personalities and lives of cats. The majority of pet owners have between 1-2 pets, but senior Sophia Weigel not only excels as a Cavalier, but in the number of cats she has. Weigel is the proud owner of seven cats and counting.

Weigel developed her passion for cats very early on due to her diet which led her to become a huge advocate for animal welfare. She has raised on a vegetarian diet which enabled her to have a deeper compassion for animals to the extent of being empathetic. Although Weigel has seven cats, her love for them developed much later on, due to a troubling experience with her first cat Midnight, which scratched her frequently and disliked her for a while. She has been offered cats by several people and she tries to take as many as she can in until her parents do not allow it.

“I am also allergic to cats and other animals, so living with several over the course of my life has been pretty bad, but I love cats, so I wouldn’t change a thing,” senior Sophia Weigel said.

The names of her seven cats are Fluffies, Luna, Primi, Daisy, Socks, Pumpkin and Bella. She adopted Primi and Daisy three and a half years ago at Petco after her older cat, Señor Tabby, died. Bella and Pumpkin are part of a set of triplets that she found being kicked around near her grandma’s house. She has always been fond of orange domestic shorthairs which are commonly known as orange tabbies. Her second cat, Morris, was an orange tabby just like Señor Tabby. All her cats have different kinds of problems or have needed medication for allergies. Most notably, Primi has a sun allergy, which causes extreme blisters on her nose from excessive scratching. Her cat Socks has an intriguing personality because of his ability to change his attitude from sweet to aggressive in the blink of an eye.

“I love that she has a cat allergy but it doesn’t stop her from interacting with them,” senior Maria Abrahamyan said.

She loves all animals and when she graduates, she will adopt a wide array of animals such as chickens, if the city laws allow her. She likes dogs somewhat, but is very distant towards them due to an incident with one of her cats that led to its demise. She visited an indigenous village in Guatemala in eighth grade where a dog suffered from a rectal prolapse and no one did anything about it. At the time, she still resented dogs, but she started crying and begging her mom to save it. This event has motivated her to pursue veterinary medicine in college and become a small and large animal veterinarian, so she can help other animals, like the cats she has saved from the streets.