Cat Herders Day: For Those Who Tried Anyway

 

Yesterday, December 15, was Cat Herders Day, a holiday that exists solely because somewhere, long ago, someone looked at an impossible situation and said, “You know what this feels like?”

Herding cats.

So why did I not post this yesterday? Because I am a cat herder (which will become apparent shortly). I even adopted that tagline on my AHeepofWords website.

This is not about walking cats. Not guiding cats. Herding them. As if they might line up politely, agree on a direction, and move forward with shared enthusiasm. Which, of course, they will not.

Cats are independent operators. They have priorities. They believe in spontaneity. They are deeply committed to whatever invisible meeting is happening just beyond your line of sight. Asking them to follow a plan is less a request and more a philosophical suggestion.

And yet—people try. Every day.

Cat Herders Day is for anyone who has ever attempted to coordinate strong personalities, manage overlapping projects, wrangle ideas that refuse to stay put, or bring order to something that thrives on creative chaos. It’s for the people who thought they had a plan, watched it dissolve in real time, and kept going anyway.

Because here’s the secret: cat herding isn’t about control. It’s about adaptation.

You don’t force cats into formation. You provide incentives. You adjust your expectations. You learn to read the room—or the tail flicks. You accept that progress may arrive in loops, detours, and dramatic pauses. Sometimes the best strategy is to sit very still and pretend you don’t care.

Strangely, this works for more than just cats.

It works for brainstorming. For writing. For managing families, teams, schedules, and lives where nothing stays neatly in its lane. It works when you’re holding multiple roles, multiple ideas, or multiple versions of yourself and trying to keep them from knocking things off the table.

(You also develop a high tolerance for things being “almost done.” Sometimes, you write under multiple pen names. Helena Parx. Lexa Drane -- I am looking at you.)

There’s a special kind of humor that emerges when you realize that some systems simply refuse to be straightened. You stop asking, Why won’t this behave? and start asking, How do I move with this instead of against it? That’s when herding becomes less frustrating—and oddly more effective.

So, this day is for the organizers who improvise, the creatives whose ideas wander off mid-sentence, the caretakers who keep things running through gentle nudges and well-timed snacks, and anyone who has ever looked around at their life and thought, Yep. This is definitely cats.

May your paths be flexible, your plans loosely held, and your sense of humor fully operational. And if nothing lines up—don’t worry. Sometimes the cats are working on something better. 🐾