You Know You're Obsessed With CATS When...

Sunny's Symptoms

• You ask the ladies at the school cafeteria why Meow Mix isn't served.
• You try to convince the police that it was Mungojerrie AND Rumpelteazer who pulled that caper they couldn't solve.
• You're angry when the weather station won't change their forcast just because you say that you get tense when you sense there's a storm in the air.
• You are very frusturated that your computer spell check does not know very important words like 'Munkustrap', 'Bombalurina', and 'Coricopat'.
• Whenever the Jellicle Moon is shining bright, you go ballistic and wait outside so you can follow your cats to the Ball.
• The next morning, when your mother asks you why you came inside at 3:00 AM with twigs in your hair and a sprained ankle, you respond that you have no idea and no, you do not know where the cats are.
• Your science teacher thinks something's wrong if you don't mention felines in your writing assignment and writes cat references in for you if you forget.
• When your Language Arts teacher assigned an essay on a special holiday tradition, he has to add that the Jellicle Ball is not a topic choice.
• You write about the Jellicle Ball anyway.
• Your mom is in love with Michael Gruber.
• You spend your spare time in Spanish class trying to translate the songs from Cats, and are dissapointed when 'Jellicles' is not in the dictionary.
• You wish people a Meowy Christmas, and a Happy Mew Year.
• You believe in Santa Claws.
• When a small child asked what your third name was, meaning your middle name, you freaked out and screamed “The cat herself knows, and will never confess!”
• You try to use a Ouija board to ask T. S. Eliot what you should name your cat. (it doesn't work, just so you'll know)
• You spent a large amount of your time in NYC in the Cats Broadway giftshop, so that you could watch the Cats video which is always playing.
• When it was announced that Cats was closing on B'way, your friends didn't say “Goodbye,” they said “Happy mourning!”
• You beg your band director at school every day to let the band play “Memory”.
• When people ask you why you named the family kitten 'Latruza', you break into “The Naming of Cats”.
• The santitation department in London have you listed as wanted for roaming through junkyards at night.
• You start playing “Memory” on the piano for your grandparents, and end up acting out the entire play.
• While packing for your trip to New York, you make sure to put your Cats costume in there.
• You have a piece of junk that you 'found' on the set of Cats hanging in your room.
• You have Michael Gruber, whom you also 'found' on the set of Cats, hanging in your room.
• Your mom hesitates before buying tickets for B'way Cats becuase Michael Gruber won't be there. (My mom really likes Michael Gruber. It's rather impressive..)
• For breakfast, you ask for Whiskas in a nice little plastic bowl.
• You're rather dissapointed when you get an English muffin instead.
• Your pajama bottoms consist of a bunch of little drawings of kitties.
• When asked what you want to be when you're older, you respond, “A Cat.”
• When asked about your Cats make-up, respond that you're not wearing any make up, and that you always look that way.
• Your friends know every word to every song from Cats. Your friends have never seen Cats.
• When watching the Pharoah scene in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, you exclaim, “He is so Rum Tum Tugger!”
• You enlighten your friends with Cats wisdom, such as: "Let your memory lead you; open up, enter in," "If you understand what happiness is, then a new life will begin," and "Jellicles wash between their toes."

Other Fans' Symptoms:

• Submitted by Spacey Vicky: You walk down New York streets in your CATS costume meowing at everyone.

• Submitted by Daggerpoint: You call every kid in your class by the name of the cat their personality is most like.

• Submitted by Bomby Aerin: You convert all your normal friends to dancers and singers, feline style
• you make your own cats company and perform regardless of what the RUG says
• you write CATs quotes on all your homework, even when the teachers tell you not to. And then you find out you have to turn it in
• when asked to write a story for Language Arts class, you turn in your CATS fanfic.(I really did!)
• all your teachers think there must be something wrong with you if you don't mention CATS for a whole class period.
• when they hear that CATS is closing, everyone in the whole school thinks of you
• your name in Spanish class is your cat name (ex: Rompetrizas- Rumpelteazer, Electra, Dιmeter/Demetria, Victoria, Bombalurina, etc.)
• you ask your German teacher to translate the German lyrics for you, which you downloaded from the internet, just to see if they're different
• you've memorised half the German lyrics, but you don't even take German
• you know the dutch names of most of the Jellicles, including Bombellerian-Bombalurina
• You know the spanish translation to the names of the CATS
• when asked to write a report about a favourite family member, you write about your cat
• you aren't allowed to have a Cat, so you paint them on the walls in your basement (I have!)
• The pillow shams on your bed are black with yellow eyes on them.
• When asked if they'll let you paint your room black, your parents say maybe
• you want to go to computer programming camp just so you can learn how to make new CATS screensavers other than the video one
• both your computers have CATS backgrounds, color schemes, icons, and screensavers, and are full of CATS information, pictures, castlists, and stuff for your website

• Submitted by TuggeraCat: You sleep with your Cats video and take it with you everwhere you go.
• You have a funeral for your worn out Cats video tape and wish to have a good time at the Heavyside Layer.

• Submitted by Matt: You will only kiss your girlfriend if she dresses us as Bomb, and you can dress up as Tugger; so you can act out the scene your way.
• You will only kiss your boyfriend if he dresses us as Tugger, and you dress up as Bomb; so you can act out the scene your way.
• You buy a cat which resembles your favourite character.
• You put it under 24hr surveillance for a year so you can find the jellicle ball.
• You think it's stupid because the cat washes between its toes and scratches behind its ears.
• The cat fails to go to the jellicle ball.
• You get rid of the cat claiming that it's not a true jellicle.
• Years later when you hear the cat died, you fell sorry for it because it won't go to the heaviside layer.
• You call your new cat "the everlasting stomach" because it's always hungry.
• You stop calling it "the everlasting stomach" because you think it's disrespectful to the real everlasting cat.

• Submitted by Sillabub: You call your grandfather the Gumbie Cat because he "sits, and sits, and sits, and sits".
• Your are missing for a week (I'm talkin POLICE CARS, people!), and your parents find you in the trunk of the car wearing an orange bathrobe.
• The fattest kid in your class you call 'Bustopher Jones'.
• That same guy carries a giant spoon around---compliments of you.

• Submitted by Tigress: You dye your hair to match that of your favorite cat.
• Your up until 3 am chatting to fellow Jellicles in another country.
• You are watching your soap opera & you begin to assign CATS roles to your favorite stars/you beging to wonder what your favorite stars would look like in CATS makeup.
• When your driving down the street you see a really beautiful car and think to yourself, "That color would make a beautiful base color for my CATS makeup."

• Submitted by True: When ya watch the movie and its over ya immediatly rewind it and then watch it again from the time you come home till ya go to sleep.
• When ya know all the dances and all the facial expressions by heart and can act it out with out the movie.
• And when ya can find random cats in the background of the scences in nearly every shot. or know where your favorite cat is at during evey part of the movie.

• Submitted by Catlin: The only way you can be punished is to have your CATS video taken away(this actually happened to me, I haven't gotten in trouble ever since)
• You mother wears earplugs so she doesn't have hear you talk about CATS or Michael Gruber
• Your father stays at work for extensive time for the same reason
• You think it's terrible that Michael Gruber and Rosemarie Ford never got Tonys for best supporting actor/actress
• You can pinpoint what each individual cat is doing when listening to the soundtrack
• Your friends steal your Cats video and hide it hoping you'll forget about it(Yeah, Right!)
• Your drama teacher/director and the entire cast of a play think that you've finaly become sane when you offer to rip all the CATS pictures in your wallet if your understudy will talk loud for her few lines
• Anyone who is not a CATS fan is automaticaly declaired your enemy
• Anyone who IS a CATS fan is automaticaly declared your new best friend
• You want to kill everyone at your sister's college because they held a celebration when CATS closed
• Your friends call you Catz, Munkustrap, Bombalurina,ect.
• You refuse to answer anyone who does not call you by your CATS related nickname
• You take you CATS soundtrack with you on you band's spring trip, and have to get another when you come home, because you've worn it out
• You try to get your band director to do a tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber for your marching show
• You want your band to play MACAVITY because the Barri Sax (you) has the main melody
• You have vowed to audition when CATS reopens
• You start a petion for CATS to reopen
• Your cat hates CATS because you've played it 'too much' (ain't no such thing)

• Submitted by Lorika: Six weeks after stupidly giving up your CATS video and cd for Lent, you are found in a dark corner clutching said objects and any other CATS stuff you can get a hold of, rocking back and forth, singing "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" in a quavering voice. (I did that. I DO NOT recommend it unless you want to force yourself to torture!)

• Submitted by Detremia: When you walk out of your room into the hall and see your dog sitting there you yell "POLLICLE!!!!" and run for cover.

• Submitted by Moongewl: You performed Macavity(after censoring it because some idiots see the arts and think MTV) in the talent show.
• You are constantly asked, "Hey, aren't you one of those girls that did the CATS thing?"
• The only person who didn't know your Halloween costume was from CATS was the guy who had his jacket up over his head, pretending to be headless.
• On a seven hour bus ride to Chicago (during which I did NOT use the bathroom because 1: I would have had to crawl over about a million people to get to the bathroom, 2: No one wants to use the bathroom on the bus, 3: Those things are disgusting, and 4: This has nothing to do with CATS so I'll get back to my other list now), you and your friend listen to her CATS soundtrack and perform along with the tape in unison in a sitting postion.
• Your mother is EXTREMELY displeased because you made an attempt (Well, erm, several actually *squirms*) at a re-creation of the CATS logo on your wall.
• You've seriously considered writing to YM about that makeover section and requesting they do a piece on CATS makeup.
• You're irritated when someone says they've never heard of CATS.
• You wonder what it would be like if certain members of your class were playing Bustopher Jones (There's this kid who I've decided would make the funniest Bustopher Jones ever).
• Every single time your read Harry Potter, you pretend your an Animagus like Professor McGonagall and can turn yourself into a cat.
• While reading Harry Potter, you also wish to defend Crookshanks for trying to eat Scabbers (That mouse was CREEPY!).
((Sunny's comment: He really wasn't trying to eat Scabbers, just bring him to Sirius. But other than that minor detail, I quite agree. ^^ ))
• You get a teacher named Mrs. Ringo and immediately think, "Ringojerrie would be SUCH a cool CATS name!"
• When he's not calling you Daria, the class clown calls you CATSgirl.
• You've watched the video so much that you have choreographed a dance for Memory (In fact, I'm rather proud of mine; it's a solo dance for a young Victoria-esque dancer, who is actually Grizabella's memory of her shining diva days).
• You know exactly when the next full moon is (There's one tonight!).
• You wish there was a TV show called "Touched by a Kitty"
• You develop a constant craving for tuna.
• You and your friend argue over who gets Macavity.
• You can sing Jemima's part, even though you're an alto.
• It takes you almost an hour to put on CATS makeup (Miss Bomba, if you're out there, THE MUZZLE LOOKED JUST FINE!)
• You and your friend, for absolutely no reason, have come up with a list of names, including people you've met online and names you just made up. Miss Bomba and I have a list of two and a half pages, front and back, four (or is it five?) columns on each side.
• You go by at least three different names, all of which pertain to CATS.
• You feel sorry for the prehistoric sabertooth tiger who was petrified in tar several million years ago that you heard about in science yesterday.
• You COMPLETELY freak when your CATS video is missing. Every time your chorus teacher sees you raise your hand, she says, "No, we are NOT going to sing 'The old Gumbie Cat,' 'Jellicle Songs for Jellicle CATS,' or whichever one it is THIS time."
• You scream "MACAVITY!" when the lights go out in an electrical storm.
• As you walk by the goofy guys at school, they all start singing "Macavity."
• Your CATS tape is broken/warped from watching, rewinding, watching, rewinding, watching, rewinding...
• Your friend tells you she's going to Europe on vacation, and all you can think about is CATS in London (despite the fact that she's going to France...).
• As you walk down the street, people you don't recognize scream "CATS!" at you.
• Whenever someone asks you what your name is, you think "The naming of cats is a difficult matter..."

• Submitted by Jellicle Kid: You start to write or type a word like "alone" or "along" and end up typing or writing "Alonzo" instead (I've done that before!).
• All the RPGs you make are about CATS.
• All the crossover fiction you write contains CATS (CATS/Pokemon, CATS/Digimon, CATS/He-Man, etc).
((Sunny's comment: Cats/Pokemon?! Ick!))
• You wish they'd make cool stuff like CATS cereal,CATS video games, CATS action figures,etc.
• When someone mentions Plato,you think of the jellicle cat.
• When you see cats on cartoons,you think of the jellicle that cartoon cat resembles (ex: Super Snooper = Plato, Gatomon = Victoria, Chococat = Misto, etc).
((Sunny's comment: Er... Am I the only one who doesn't know who any of those cartoon cats are? I'll take your word for that one.))
• Your Neopets account has a CATS user names,Neopets named after CATS characters and a CATS guild.
• The people on your NeoFriends list are CATS fans.

• Submitted by Gypsy Marble: You ask your other CATS friends who they like with out make-up (I have they bonus features movie and I like Drew Varley...Yes that is Mungojerrie) ((Sunny says: Mmm, I agree!))
• You constantly have to go to the eye doctor and regular doctor from watching and acting out CATS.
• You pretend to write letters to the actors.(I do! Mine are all to Drew Varley though and they say " YOU'RE CUTE YOU'RE CUTE."
• Instead of passing out candy for Halloween you pass out CATS C.Ds and tapes
• Or you pass out Old Possum's book of Practical Cats
• You go around the net spreading the talk about CATS
• You dye your hair in orange and gray streaks
• You put CATSup on everything you eat.
• You notice your dad acts like Old Deuteronmy
• On Halloween you tell your mom and dad you MUST dress as your favorite cat from CATS or you will not be part of the cyber jellicles.

• Submitted by Nora Lynn: You go online every night for a year to find pictures of all the cats with and without make-up and stick them to your wall. (My mom took my CATS tape for a week when I did this, lucky I memorized it.)

• Submitted by Rowena:
• You can't play "Clue" (ya know the game?) without shouting at least 36 times: "It was... MUNGOJERRIE!" (I actually do that!)
• You have named your roomplants after Cats characters.
• You have broken several items just by dancing along with the Cats-video (and you still think it's harmless to be a Cats fanatic).
• You pull a muscle when you try to do that Victoria's amazing split (been there, done that).
• Everytime you try to draw a human, it somehow gets whiskers and a tail.
• You try to dive trough the air like a flying trapeze. You end up in hospital for 3 weeks.
• Your family tries to hide your Cats-video "for your own good."
• You dream of Cats allmost every night. (I do this!)
• You try to catch and eat your gerbil.
• You skip the idea and re-name it as Rumpelteazer.
• You hiss at dogs.
• People can't leave you alone in the house without finding you dancing and singing "Macavity".

• Submitted by Deanna: You've been to the Emergency room one too many times all because you just don't land on your feet when you fall on your head.

• Submitted by Elora: You scream and cry when your friends tell you they're sick of you talking about CATS.
• Your mum hides your Cats Videos so that you will come out of your bedroom.
• You have at least three cats videos of your own.
• You go in a huff when your brother/sister wants to watch your cats video
• You yell at anyone who likes the same Cats actor as you. (when my friend said she liked Michael Gruber, I gave her a fat lip...seriously!) [Sunny's note: That's just scary.]
• The new kids in your school know that you did Macavity in the school talent show, even though it was four years before.
• You beg your choir teacher to let you sing the Cats lyics, and when she says no, you quit the choir.

• Submitted by Scherzando: (true story) Band plays 'Silent Night'. CATS fan notices it's written by Franz Gruber. CATS fan emits large squeal of delight. CATS fan gets kicked out of classroom. CATS fan soon found out in the hallway, dancing Bombalurina's part in 'Macavity'. CATS fan gets asked out by onlooker. [Sunny's note: How come I never get asked out by onlookers?]
• You get tense when you sense there's a storm in the air.
• You got the CATS dvd.
• You don't have a dvd player.
• You actually heard the cats say 'Macavity's not there' after Macky electrocutes himself.
• Jacob Brent has a restraining order on you.
• You have 130 other 'CATS' fans on your buddy list, and you haven't met a single on of them.
• (another true story) CATS fan walks up to drama teacher. Drama teacher spots CATS fan and immediately says 'No, we're not doing CATS as this year's musical!'. CATS fan is begining to wonder why she's talking to herself in third person. Oh well. CATS fan knows that Griz did this when she first appeared anyway.
• You can dance the Jellicle ball sequence when you're just listening to the CD.
• You fall out of bed after trying to do it in your sleep. (it hurts, I know from firsthand expirence)
• You read this list and realize you've done 75% of the things on it.
• You know who Julius Sermona is.
• You haven't ever seen Julius Sermona.
• Date: Nov. 1, 2002. You're found in your bedroom, working on a Jemima costume for next year. (Actually, by Nov. 1 I finished the tail and 1/2 of the leg warmer)
• You can find cats such as Ademetus and Exotica in the video from watching it so many times.
• (another true story) You're best friends with the Star Wars fanatics because Femi Taylor (Exotica) played the dancer in 'Return of the Jedi'.
• You danced Misto's solo part at the prom.
• You perform CATS for a talent show. (I mean as in you perform the entire musical)

• Submitted by Rubi: You wish the band would play 'Macavity' only because you're in Chorus and could sing the melody (Complete with accent-- "He's broken ev'ry human luw; he breaks the luw of gravity..") (I do this frequently... *Sigh*)
• You have the lyrics and melody to the CATS songs stuck in your head for all eternity. (*Sigh* Me too...)
• Every time your favorite cat comes on screen (or near your section in the audience), you gaze dreamily at him/her. (Guess my obsession with Mistoffelees has gone a little too far....)
• You know all of your favorite cat's appearances by heart, and their lines as well.

• Submitted by Faythe: Your parents take you to a shrink for meowing all the time.

• Submitted by Etcetera: You throw a CATS party and invite all your friends.
• You make them dress up like their favorite CATS from the video and you eat that soup with the noodles that look like fish, and cake that is shaped like a cat (mine was VICTORIA) and grilled cheese shaped like fish, gold fish crackers, and milk in bowls.
• Afterwords,you watch your brand new CATS DVD, and your friend,(who had never seen CATS, and wasn't paying attention) asks you,"WHAT'S A JELLICLE CAT???" and your other friends say oh GREAT, Rachael! now she's gonna recite the naming of cats!!!!!!!!!! and,of course,you do.
• Your friend Rachael now knows not to ask you THAT question again!(i actually DID have a CATS party, and the Rachael incident DID actually happen, and I DO actually know the naming of cats!)

Okay kitties, I've gotten this going and intend to keep working on it. But it would be great help if you would submit your own obsession signs to the list! I'd be sure to give you credit!