The first time I moved away from home, I spent very little time considering how I would be replaced for the simple fact that I believed I was irreplaceable, after all teenagers and narcissists are basically synonyms. And for the first couple of years, I was right. When I came home, my bedroom was still my bedroom, my parents were always around to take my calls, and most importantly, I had attained guest status when I came home for breaks (clean sheets, a frantic house cleaning, dinner out, etc.) I call these the good years.

Fast forward a decade or so and meet Taji, aka Taj; a silver Maine Coon that my parents bought from a breeder in Long Island two years ago. I should have known something was up when they actually spent money to buy a cat (my dad’s primary reasoning for not getting us a dog when we were kids was that cats were free). With the ears of a bat and the swagger and confidence of a Jersey girl, it was hard not to like Taj, until that was, I realized that she was my replacement.

If you are thinking that I am being silly or insecure over a cat, than you are blissfully unaware of the hole that an exotic pet fills for empty nesters. Between her disarming good looks, high-end food, and special treatment from my parents, that cat is having the kind of childhood I could only dream of!

When I was a kid, toys on the floor were a mess, standing on the counter was dangerous, strewing new rolls of toilet paper like party streamers was wasteful, and that making SpaghettiOs at 4am (a dream I had to wait to realize until college) was just not happening. Now toys on the floor are “soooo cute”, that the counter is the next best place to being in a tree, that unspooling toilet paper was still wasteful, but that obscenely early morning snacking is not only a reasonable request, but is literally served on a china saucer. Agh, to go back and live in such luxury.

When my sister and I were younger, we used to argue about who my mom loved the most. These days, we argue about other things because we have both come to accept that we have been replaced by a cat from Long Island. So for Mother’s Day, instead of giving her flowers or candy, I am conceding defeat and framing some of my favorite shots of the true object of my mother’s affection because although my mom denies it, Taji knows the truth– she doesn’t have the Jersey girl swagger for nuthin.