This week get to know Shea Daspin and all four of her cats! Shea is an infectiously energetic and fun stylist I met in NYC while shooting a magazine editorial. I hope you have fun checking out our interview together!
Enjoy,
Anneliese + Felicity xo
Photo credit: BriAnne Wills via Girl's and Their Cats
Meet the Human-
1. What is your name?
Shea Daspin
2. What is your calling in life?
To be and spread happiness.
3. What is your favorite color?
Pink.
4. What is your favorite type of food or meal?
Pizza and nachos, anything with lots of cheese.
5. What is a smell that makes you happy?
I love the smell of ginger.
6. Where and how did you grow up?
My childhood, I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago in a middle class, suburban family, a pretty homogenous neighborhood. Then when I was 18, I moved to New York.
7. What inspired you to do what you're doing now?
Oh, god. What am I doing now? Well, I'm sitting on my couch with my cat. But I guess I got into the world, kind of the greater field of fashion, because I grew up really tall- freakishly tall. I was picked on and bullied a lot for being weirdly tall. In my head, I always told myself everyone would eat their words, because I was going to be a supermodel one day, because that was the only thing I could think of that being tall was a good thing. I got it early on in my head that I wanted to be a model just so I didn't feel bullied anymore. Then after I kind of thought on that... the wanting to be a model idea eventually brought me to fashion, and wanting to work in fashion in general. So, that's kind of how I ended up here as a stylist!
8. If you could tell your younger self something you wish you knew now, what would it be?
It's okay to go to a therapist or find a good therapist!
9. If you had superpowers, what would they be?
I've always wanted to teleport. There's nothing worse than being one place and knowing you have to go somewhere else but not wanting to get up and actually go. So, I've always wanted just, if I was really tired, to teleport anywhere.
10. Who is your fashion icon or role model?
A lot of the eccentrics. I always say my intellectual fashion icon and role model is Marie Antoinette, because she was from what I could find in the history books one of the first rule breakers of fashion specifically for women and what they were supposed to wear versus what was comfortable. Because of this, I always thought she was a pioneer and badass for women and women's fashion.
11. What is your favorite trend at the moment, and what is one you wish would just go away forever?
My favorite trend at the moment is use of color, because I feel like that has not always been the trendy thing to do. When I was in college, everyone was really into wearing all black and looking like they walked off the Rick Owens runway, and now color is really popular. I love that, because that's always been my thing! I could always do without brown suede fringe. It's not my thing.
Meet the Pets-
1. What are your names?
Iggy: I'm the hairless cat
Spud: I'm the orange cat
Bangs: I'm the youngest
Pepé: I'm a girl, and a black and white cat.
2. What breeds are you?
Iggy: Sphynx cat
Spud: orange tabby cat.
Bangs: domestic shorthair tortoiseshell.
Pepé: I don't know what breed I am. I was adopted and was listed as half Sphynx, because I only had half my hair at the time, but a lot of it's grown in. I am a very weird mutated cat. I was also a "boy" for the first two years, and then found out I was a girl! I don't have a breed.
3. How old are you?
Bangs: 1
Pepé: 4
Iggy: 7
Spud: 12.
4. If you all had superpowers, what would they be?
Pepé: to be invisible, because I'm very skittish and hate when people look at me.
Bangs: definitely flying, because I love jumping with the toy.
Iggy: start fires. I would start fires because I like to be warm.
Spud: I would have the superpower to turn on the lights so that Shea would always feed me as early as I want in the morning.
5. Who are your role models in life?
Pepé: I look up to Pepé Le Pew, because that's who I was named after.
Bangs: I look up to Spud. That's my role model.
Spud: I look up to Josh, Shea's husband.
Iggy: Shea is my role model.
6. can you tell us how you came to be together?
Iggy: I'm from a breeder, because my breed is very rare. I was adopted by Shea a year after she graduated college. I was her first cat ever! Shea's mom was convinced that she was lonely in New York City by herself, which she wasn't, but then she got it into Shea's head that she needed a cat... She wanted something as weird as she was, so she got me! I helped Shea turn into an adult. I really helped shape Shea into the adult lady she is now.
Spud: Josh rescued me when he was in college. I have been with Josh for 12 years and was a rescue from a shelter!
Pepé: I was a rescue from a shelter. I was found on Petfinder and was listed as half Sphynx at a kill shelter in Denton, Texas. I looked so weird with no hair, and was the last one of my litter. So, Shea and Josh flew out to Texas, and got me at the shelter a week before I was slated to be put down.
Bangs: I joined the family this past January! I'm adopted from a family in South Dakota...
7. What are your favorite colors?
We all love pink, and plus, Shea has pink hair too.
8. What is the ultimate cheat meal for you?
a double can of Fancy Feast, in two different seafood flavors... Oh and with gravy sauce.
9. How did you get your names, and is there any significance behind them?
Spud: I was named after one of the characters in that movie Trainspotting, because Shea's husband is an ex punk. So, he was really into Trainspotting.
Iggy: I got my name, because Shea thinks I look like a little wiggly noodle. So she took the W and the L out.
Pepé: I got my name because I look like a skunk. I was named after Pepé Le Pew, the cartoon character.
Bangs: I got my name because it looks like I have bangs or fringe hair. The top half of my face is black, and the bottom half is orange and white. So, it looks like I have blunt cut bangs on my head... also because I'm also incredibly clumsy, I jump and bang around everywhere, but mostly because I have bangs on my face.
10. Do you go by any nicknames, or do they go by any nicknames?
Pepé: Pepepe, like P-E-P-E-P-E, because whenever Shea talks about petting me, they say that "we're going to pet Pepé", but when they say it fast, it sounds like Pepepe.
Bangs: I do not have a nickname
Spud: Spud Spud
Iggy: Iggs, like I-G-G-S
11. if you could be any person in the world for a day, who would it be and why?
Spud, Iggy, Bangs, Pepé: Shea and Josh (duh)
Meet the Group-
1. Take us through your morning routine together!
The cats will meow around 3:00 AM to be fed. I will not feed them, but then Josh will get annoyed and get up to feed them. So, then they get fed between 3:00 and 5:00 AM. Then once Josh and I get up for real, around 8:00, we all watch The Today Show. Then the cats look out the windows for a couple hours and run around the house. We go about our day, then playtime is around 5:00 or 6:00. They love the stick with the string on it! Then TV and movie time around 7:00, which is also when dinner is. Then bedtime by 9:00, 10:00. I go to bed really early most nights.
2. Do you all ever dress alike?
I mean, Iggy has some clothes. Iggy used to have a beret, and I love a good beret... I have a hat collection myself. So, yes, Iggy can be quite fashionable. He also used to have some sweaters. But besides that, we're all quite our individual selves, but sometimes I look like Pepé, because I wear a lot of black and white graphic stuff. So, sometimes I look like Pepé when I wear my black and white clothes.
3. What are your favorite things to do together?
We love snuggling, and we love playing with the cat toy that's on a wire.
It's a wire on a stick with a little ball on it. They can all jump pretty high, so they all will go crazy for that thing. They love to chase a laser pointer up the wall. Oh, and we all love watching the stray alley cats come by, feeding them, and watching them through the window.
4. What is your favorite game to play together?
Definitely that stick and wire game.
5. What is something your cats do that gets on your nerves?
They walk on my bladder when I'm sleeping.
6. What is the best thing about having each other?
The love and the cuddles.
7. What is your favorite memory all together?
I would say it would be running up and down the spiral staircase in our house, because the staircase in our house kind of resembles a giant cat tree. My favorite memory of them is just watching them and hearing them run up and down this giant staircase like a stampede.
8. What's the funniest thing your cats have ever done?
We love when they do "smell face" ... We call it smell face, but it's the face they make when they smell something and are trying to get more information. They open up their mouth a little bit wider. It's always really fun for us when they do "smell face".
9. What would you say is the hardest thing about caring for your cats?
Scooping all the poop. It's a lot of poop with four cats.
10. Do your cats inspire you? And if so, how and why?
I would think, if anything, they inspire me just to be ... It's kind of like when I first got Iggy after college. He made me take care of the house, my apartment a little bit better, and therefore myself. They make me want to be a better person, because I want to take care of them and make sure they're happy. They inspire me to stay on a schedule with feeding and playing and sleeping. And just by being on a schedule and taking care of the house, trying to make sure there's nothing they can eat and choke on or puke or whatever, makes me a better person by proxy!
11. If you could ask your cats one question, what would it be?
It would be "Where do the alley cats live?" Because I'm sure they talk. I'm sure they know where the alley cats live. We don't know. They come every night, and I'm sure the cats have an idea where they come from, but I just only ever see them by the door...
Is there anything else you'd like to add about you and your cats?
That we all love each other very much!
I hope you enjoyed this week's 33 Answers interview with Shea and all her awesome cats! Be sure to follow them all on insta @shea.daspin
alsoooo if you liked what you read here, it would mean the world to us (especially Felicity... you know how she is) if you shared this with all your friends!
Love,
Anneliese + Felicity :) xx