The Walking Dead Star Norman Reedus is a Cat Lover

Ever since the world went to the zombies in The Walking Dead back in 2010, ladies have fallen in love with Norman Reedus AKA Daryl Dixon. Now known as the top rated television series in the world, Norman is fighting a good fight in real life in the world of animal advocacy-especially cats.

Norman is a friend of The Paw Project, whose mission is to educate the public about the painful and crippling effects of cat declawing, to promote animal welfare by ending the practice of declaw surgery, and to rehabilitate declawed big cats. Norman has publicly pleaded with the cat loving community not to declaw their cats.

The Paw Project documentary examines the emotional and physical cost that a cat pays when declawed; and reveals the profit that the procedure generates for veterinary doctors across the nation. Despite the physical and behavioral harm inflicted on cats that are declawed, many veterinarians continue to recommend the procedure to their clients. The Facebook: The Paw Project page states that 25% of cats in the U.S. are declawed. https://www.facebook.com/pawproject/info?tab=page_info

In an interview with People magazine, Norman told of his son, age five at the time, wanting a little black kitten. So Norman started calling around until he found his son a kitten in New York’s East Village. The owner told Norman the kitten was found inside a box in an alley, and warned him the little black beauty was going to be a handful who would never love anyone

“And the first time I saw it, it was like just hissing and scratching everything it saw and now it’s like this big, fat, chill cat.”

The kitten, named Eye in the Dark because the family had a black kitchen floor and only the kittens eyes were visible. is said to ride in Norman’s lap while he’s driving. Here’s a video by People magazine from November 2013 that shows his love and respect of his feline friend.

At first Norman was concerned when he learned he had earned a spot in the People’s Sexiest Man Alive section for 2013. He didn’t know how he was going to pull that off, until he learned People wanted to photograph him with Eye in the Dark. He relaxed at that point, thinking everyone would be looking at the cat instead of him.

People definitely had the right idea photographing a man holding a cat. What man isn’t sexy when paired with a feline friend? Especially when his love for that cat shines through in the photo session.

It’s great that Norman took in and loved a cat he didn’t know at the time would grow to love him in return. It’s also nice to have known Norman is as wonderful a person as he is an advocate for cats.

Sources: 1 and 2