Eleanor Abernathy

"Arrrriairar!!"

- The Crazy Cat Lady's catchphrase

Dr. Eleanor Abernathy MD JD, better known as the Crazy Cat Lady, is a mentally-ill 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.

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. She once shared a cat with Moe.

In Abernathy's first appearance, Lisa is attempting to cast her in a positive light, asking, "Can anyone who loves animals so much, really be crazy?" At this point, she emerges throwing cats and pursues Lisa throughout town.

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. 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?"



Trivia

 * The Crazy Cat Lady has a Mayan ancestor who throws chameleons 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.