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They’re the furry underbelly of the pampered pet kingdom, the lanky neighbors who hide behind tin garbage cans when we walk by, stealing hungry glances at our overfed faces. They’re stray cats, or feral cats, if you want to get technical. And they have a friend in Sunset Park journalist Nina Malkin, whose recent memoir, “An Unlikely Cat Lady: Feral Adventures in the Backyard Jungle,” was published last year.

Malkin became an official “unlikely” cat lady a couple of years ago, when she met the kitties in her backyard. Soon, she was seduced by their fiendishly cute ways. Malkin even began to do “TNR” — cat-lady-speak for the ASPCA-sponsored practice of trapping, neutering, and releasing stray cats to cut down on overpopulation. (And continuing to feed them their twice-daily portion of kibble, of course.) Reporter Dana Rubinstein, a closeted cat lady herself, checked in with Malkin this week to find out what exactly drives her to take so many underfed kitties under her … er … paw.

Q: Why did you write this book?

A: I wanted to make people aware of the homeless cat population crisis, why it happens, and how TNR can help stop it.

Q: Your book was written in a decidedly tongue-in-cheek tone. Would you agree that it’s impossible to be an earnest cat lady?

A: I don’t think it’s impossible. I’ve met some earnest cat ladies. We all know what the image of us is. But most of us don’t conform to it. We have lives, relationships, husbands, children, jobs, friends. But one way or another, we started caring for the animals that no one else will care for.

Q: Are you using this book to urge closeted cat ladies to get over their inhibitions and be true to their cat-lady selves?

A: It’s a memoir. It’s not a “how-to” book. It’s one hapless couple’s story about what happens when you get down on one knee and go, “Here, kitty, kitty.” … It’s not a call to arms for people who live in an apartment with 37 cats. But yes, if you see a homeless cat on your street and you want to do something about it, you should. Especially if you live in New York, because there are resources here that can help you.

Q: Why are there so few cat men?

A: It’s interesting that you ask that. I am working on a novel now about a cat man.

Q: But have you ever met a cat man?

A: I’ve converted a few men into cat men. But I don’t really know why [there are seemingly fewer cat men]. Perhaps it’s that cats are somewhat female. They’re pretty. They can be a little fussy. But I think it’s just a stereotype that cats and little old spinster ladies go together. Men have cats.

Q: What do you think of the practice of having indoor-outdoor cats?

A: We visited my husband’s family in rural South Carolina recently. The neighbor had gotten a cat, and it had taken a fancy to a little boy in my husband’s family and was always over there. A couple of weeks ago, we heard that Little Mike got hit by a car.

Q: So you oppose the practice of having indoor-outdoor cats?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you ever worry that by neutering and spaying feral cats, you’re infringing on their sexual freedom?

A: No, because they don’t really have great lives. And if you’re ever seen a small, starving, flea-bitten animal with leukemia or AIDS or an upper respiratory infection digging through a garbage can, it doesn’t make you think, “Oh, well it’s nature.”

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper