Taylor Swift may be one of the best-selling music artists of all time, but she is also a self-proclaimed “cat lady” who is not afraid to express her love for felines through her lyrics.
Swift — who is a “cat mom” to Scottish folds Meredith Grey and Olivia Benson and Ragdoll Benjamin Button (named after characters from Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order: SVU and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, respectively) — is prone to using kitties as metaphors in her music.
“Karma is a cat purring in my lap ‘cause it loves me,” Swift sings in her Midnights track “Karma.” (Mariska Hargitay, who plays Olivia Benson’s namesake on SVU, named her cat Karma in 2023 after Swift’s song.)
Moreover, Swift’s three cats have made appearances alongside her in music videos, magazine covers and social media posts throughout her career. The singer’s love of cats even inspired her to appear in Tom Hooper’s 2019 film adaptation of the Broadway musical Cats.
“I have cats. I’m obsessed with them. I love my cats so much that when a role came up in a movie called Cats, I just thought, like, I gotta do this,” she told TIME in 2019. “[Cats are] very dignified. They’re independent. They’re very capable of dealing with their own life.”
That same year, Swift’s cats Meredith and Olivia costarred in her music video for ME! alongside Brendon Urie. Referring to the Scottish folds as her “young daughters” in the video, Swift gets into an argument with Urie’s character, and he ultimately presents Swift with a kitten to ask her for her forgiveness. That kitten was a young Benjamin, and Swift couldn’t help but take him home after they wrapped the video.
Benjamin went on to grace the cover of TIME alongside Swift in 2023 when she was named Person of the Year. “We’d like to name you Person of the Yea- […] Me: Can I bring my cat,” Swift wrote via X at the time, taking a dig at her obsession while sharing the cover.
Keep scrolling for a comprehensive guide to every time Swift has referenced cats in her lyrics:
“Wonderland”
In the Alice in Wonderland-themed track from 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Swift references one of the most famous fictional cats of all time.
“Didn’t you calm my fears with a Cheshire Cat smile?” she sings.
Earlier in the song, she sings: “Didn’t you flash your green eyes at me? / Haven’t you heard what becomes of curious minds?” While Swift is clearly speaking to an ex in the song, she is also referencing the green eyes of the Cheshire Cat and the proverb “Curiosity killed the cat.”
“Gorgeous”
Swift sings of a lover whose beauty makes her “furious” in the Reputation track from 2017. During the song’s bridge, the pop star sings, “You make me so happy it turns back to sad / There’s nothing I hate more than what I can’t have / Guess I’ll just stumble on home to my cats alone / Unless you wanna come along.”
The lyric likely references a viral red carpet interview from the 2015 Grammys, during which Swift was told by an interviewer, “You’re going to walk home with more than maybe just a trophy tonight, I think lots of men.” In response, Swift quipped, “I’m not going to walk home with any men tonight. I’m going to go hang out with my friends, and then I go home to the cats.”
“Paper Rings”
Using the idiom “cat and mouse,” which refers to a back-and-forth pursuit, Swift sings about her favorite animal once again on the Lover track “Paper Rings.”
The song describes the evolution of a relationship from a couple’s first meeting to a marriage proposal with “paper rings.” Of the twosome’s initial courting, Swift sings, “Cat and mouse for a month or two or three / Now I wake up in the night and watch you breathe.”
“Vigilante Sh*t”
Swift begins one of her more risqué songs, “Vigilante Sh*t” off of 2022’s Midnights, with the lyric, “Draw the cat eye, sharp enough to kill a man.”
The pop star is referencing the eyeliner technique that mimics the slant of a cat eye in the song, which takes aim at an enemy from her past. (Many fans have theorized that this song is about her feud with Scooter Braun.)
“They say looks can kill and I might try,” Swift sings later in the chorus. “I don’t dress for women / I don’t dress for men / Lately, I’ve been dressing for revenge.”
“Karma”
In the dance-pop song off Midnights, Swift uses a slew of metaphors to convey karma working in her favor.
“Karma is my boyfriend / Karma is a god / Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend / Karma’s a relaxing thought / Aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?” Swift sings in the song’s chorus.
She continues: “Sweet like honey, karma is a cat / purring in my lap ‘cause it loves me.”
