I am a cat person and I love my cat dearly. I have raised him from the age of three months, and he's almost two years old now. I grew up in a house full of cats - we never had fewer than four. I love them and I know how special a bond is between a cat and his/her owner(s). To me, similar to many other pet owners, cats are like family.

My girlfriend does not like cats. She seems especially opposed to mine, because he sometimes scratches me, but that's when I play too rough and overstep his boundaries. He has never intentionally hurt anyone. He is mostly just chill and never tries to go out of his way to be aggressive. But she still dislikes him and sometimes says mean things about him, and when I try to explain that he has never done anything but be a cat, she says I shouldn't try to change her opinion of cats. Should I continue to defend my cat? I feel like a crazy cat lady, but I have a feeling I'm right about this. If I have a creature in my life that is important to me, I feel like she should make more of an effort not to say mean things.