“Arrrriairar!!” ―The Crazy Cat Lady's catchphrase

Dr. Eleanor Abernathy MD JD, better known as the Crazy Cat Lady, is a mentally ill hoarder woman who always surrounds herself with a large number of cats. She usually screams gibberish and/or throws her cats at passersby. She gives Lisa one of her cats, Snowball V, who looks exactly like her original Snowball II. She is 40 years old, although she appears elderly.

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Biography

Life

When she was eight, Eleanor Abernathy was a smart and ambitious young girl who wanted to be both a lawyer and a doctor "because a woman can do anything". She was studying for law school at 16, and by 24, she had earned an MD from Harvard Medical School and a JD from Yale Law School. However, by 32, suffering from burnout, she had turned to alcohol, became obsessed with her pet cat, and would randomly take to cutting pieces of her own hair. By the time she was 40, she had assumed her present state as a drunken, raving lunatic.[1] She once shared a cat with Moe.[2]

In Abernathy's first appearance, Lisa stands in front of Abernathy's house and attempts to cast her in a positive light, asking, "Can anyone who loves animals so much, really be crazy?" At this point, Abernathy emerges from her house throwing cats and pursues Lisa throughout town.[3]

Intelligence

Even without medication, she appears to be very intelligent. When Mayor Quimby is recalled, she runs for the mayor's office. During a candidate debate, she is asked what public policy issues are important to her. Unlike the other candidates (who act as stereotypical dishonest politicians), Abernathy discusses issues such as health care, economy, and public education in between her screams and gibberish (and a call for cats "in everyone's pants").

Illness

The Cat Lady enjoys "brief moments of lucidity" after taking psychoactive medication.[4] She abruptly resumes her usual bizarre behavior when Marge mentions that the "pills" are actually Reese's Pieces. Her medication helps her speak intelligibly rather than her usual gibberish. She has a hoarding disorder, which we learned in the episode "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is the current cause of her mental illness. However, in her first appearance, while Lisa is doing a news report, she asks "Can anyone who loves animals this much really be crazy?". However, Lisa likely wasn’t aware of the cats’ distress.

Trivia

The Crazy Cat Lady has a Mayan ancestor who throws iguanas instead of cats.

She was originally going to be a one-off character, but the writers liked her so much that they use her as a minor character.

She is related to Otto through a distant cousin.

Eleanor Abernathy attended both Yale and Harvard.

Her first cat is named Buster.

Eleanor is a strong advocate for women's rights.

She pursued two careers before falling victim to alcoholism.

She is a very talented opera singer. [5]

She frequently abuses her cats. In addition to throwing them, she has been seen scrubbing them with a washboard. Whether or not she is aware of this is unknown.

She is able to accurately throw a cat over a house without looking in the direction she threw it, as seen in the episode The Last of the Red Hat Mamas.

She is based on Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale - a cousin of JFK who went crazy and owned many cats in her dilapidated mansion, Grey Gardens on Long Island.

Her surname, "Abernathy", is of Scottish origin.

Appearances

Gallery

The full image gallery for Eleanor Abernathy may be viewed at Eleanor Abernathy/Gallery.

Citations



