By: Stephanie Blair 
Copy Editor

When I was 13, my mother told me that if a married couple gets a dog, in two years they’ll have a baby. This wasn’t a scientific study she read, just her own observation. She watched all of her twenty-something friends get engaged, married, a dog, a baby – in that order.

So what about people, like me, who don’t want kids? Is there a safer (but still furry) alternative?

The answer: cats.

As the “mother” of two rescues, I can say that the joys of parenthood that are so often described to me by older, female members of my family who strongly believe that I’ll change my mind about kids, are present in the ownership of fur-babies.

I found a tiny, shivering, adorable ball of fluff and bones last May: an abandoned six-week-old kitten. I got to watch her development as she grew from a meek, pocket-sized miracle to a confident, athletic ruler of the house who, all too often, wakes me up at 6 a.m. for food. There is something magical about raising a living being, I’ll given my baby-crazy relatives that, but not having to risk my health to start its life is a big plus.

And let’s be real: I get to put my baby in ridiculous clothes. Tiny cat sweaters are, in fact, as cute as baby shoes.

As if that all weren’t enough, the woes of fur-baby bearing are also much less than those of the naked man-children.

For one thing, kids are expensive. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that the amount it will cost to raise a child born in 2013 to the age of 18, with adjustments made for projected inflation, is over $300,000. And while a raising an animal isn’t free, businessinsider.com used ASPCA data to calculate the cost of owning different pets over their lifetimes, and cats, who live to be about 15 years old on average, cost their owners approximately $7,500.

Not to mention, cats are much more self-reliant than dogs and human babies. The stereotype of spoiled, needy cats is colored heavily by dog-lovers in the movie industry. The reality is that my cat washes herself and goes to the bathroom on her own. My boyfriend’s dog has to be let out and bathed by his owner.

So, in short, if you don’t want to get pregnant and have a baby, but you love companionship that doesn’t hump your leg, go adopt a cat. They’re great.