Urban India’s relationship with pets is evolving, and cats are quietly becoming central to that shift. Across cities, more young professionals and modern households are embracing cat parenting, bringing with them a different understanding of companionship, emotional connection and care.
Among those helping bring this relationship into popular culture are actors like Aditi Rao Hydari, whose candid conversations about life with her cats, Iggy and Ollie, have resonated deeply with fellow cat parents. Their stories are moving cats beyond niche pet conversations and into a broader dialogue around emotional companionship, boundaries and the quieter forms of affection that define modern relationships.
Cats do not perform affection on demand. Their attention is given, or it isn’t. Cat parents learn quickly to read the difference. A nudge at the ankle, a deliberate choice to stay in the room, a gaze held a moment longer than usual, or the famous slow blink, these are not incidental. For people who live with cats, they become the primary vocabulary of a relationship.
That emotional dynamic sits at the centre of SHEBA®’s IGNORED TO ADORED™ campaign, which captures a truth every cat parent instinctively understands while cats are deeply loved, their affection is never assumed. It is earned. The campaign brings alive the beautifully unpredictable relationship between cats and their humans, where love is not loud or performative, but built through patience, intention, mealtimes and small acts of care.
Aditi Rao Hydari’s own relationship with her cats, Iggy and Ollie, mirrors this closely. In her recent interactions, she spoke about having grown up around cats and dogs, and about how love has always felt omnipresent in her life. “I have grown up believing that I’m surrounded by love,” she said, adding that she has never had a day where she doubted it.
She also spoke warmly about Siddharth, calling him “a very special being” and saying that to find a person you “naturally, effortlessly belong to” is very lucky. For Aditi, love has often been instinctive, abundant and effortless. But with her cats, she admitted, it is different.
“With them, I have to say that love is not effortless at all,” she said. “You have to earn their love and they really make you work for it.” She described Iggy and Ollie as the two beings who keep her guessing the most, joking that cats give you a reality check because unlike dogs, who make you feel like you have descended from heaven, cats behave like they are giving you space to live in their house.
That is what made her experience with the SHEBA® 7 Day Ignored to Adored Challenge feel especially relatable. What began as a playful campaign idea became, for her, a lesson in mindful care. She spoke about how feeding Iggy and Ollie became more than just a routine. It became about connection, paying attention and understanding what mattered to them.
After trying the challenge, Aditi admitted that it worked. She said she began getting “soft, blinky eyes” from Iggy and Ollie, more cuddles and less attitude. “They probably think I am SHEBA cat food, and I’m fine with that,” she joked, adding that mealtimes had become more fun and more intentional.
Around Mother’s Day, that story is finding its way into a wider cultural conversation. Not about who counts as a mother, but about what it means to nurture someone who does not always respond on command, who may walk away mid affection, who may ignore you on video calls, and yet still becomes the emotional centre of a home.
For many urban cat moms, that is the heart of it. Motherhood is not always about control, routine or obvious dependence. Sometimes, it is about showing up consistently for a creature who has a full personality, a strong sense of self and no interest in pretending otherwise.
Cats make care quieter, more observant and more intentional. They teach patience. They teach boundaries. They teach that love can be present even when it is not instantly visible. And in that sense, the journey from ignored to adored is not just a campaign thought. It is a familiar emotional arc for every cat parent who has waited for that one slow blink, one cuddle, one moment of chosen affection, and known it was worth earning.
