These days Congress is awash with proposals to provide additional tax benefits for families with children. Fine. There’s nothing wrong with more government subsidies for kids. But while legislators are in a generous and disposing mood, how about a long overdue tax break for house cats.

An estimated 30 million U.S. households now include cats as full-fledged family members. In all, there are nearly 60 million tabbies-in-residence in this country. This latter figure not only suggests the extraordinary appeal of these creatures (you got one, you want another), it is clear evidence of the superiority of cats over ordinary pets like dogs, gerbils, parakeets and ferrets, who tend to be taken singly into a family fold.

Although the visceral link between cats and U.S. taxpayers crosses every ethnic and religious divide, it nonetheless strongest among women. Indeed, in a fundamental sense, a tabby tax credit is a gender-based equity issue.

One leading cat magazine recently reported that an astonishing 93 percent of its readership is female. At a time when so many market forces are conspiring to put a glass ceiling on women’s incomes, few could deny that a tabby credit represents a direct way, perhaps the most direct way, to close the gender tax gap.

Let there be no mistake about the need for reform in this realm. Maintaining a cat in America now, in the style to which it believes itself entitled, ain’t cheap. Basics like a 10-pound bag of kibble, which last my own Colette and Rambo only a month or so, retail for $20. A typical visit to the vet can run more than $100. And when you go beyond the basics and get into discretionary spending (which is not all that discretionary if you know what’s good for you), the numbers can really add up.

Maybe a lot of contemporary economists honestly believe that inflation is under control and even overstated. But these dour number crunchers have clearly not been out pricing cat toys lately. Or a box of quality nip. This kind of thing can be a crushing burden for people who want to give a little something extra to the fur balls that share their lives—and yes, not infrequently, their beds as well.

Cat companions in this country seek no special treatment. Only fairness. We have contributed to government largess for the elderly, the young, the infirm, the poor. Now we want our own piece of the pie.

All we are saying is: give cats a chance.