While You Were Sleeping (1995)

While You Were Sleeping poster

Hollywood Pictures
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher
Also Starring: Princess
Directed by: Jon Turteltaub

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Lucy (Sandra Bullock) is a Chicago Transit Authority worker who is smitten with a good-looking rider named Peter (Peter Gallagher). After saving his life when he falls on the tracks, she visits him while in a coma in the hospital where Peter’s family mistakes her for their son’s fiancé.

Featured Feline: Lucy owns a long-haired calico cat named Mel (played by cat actor Princess). Mel is first seen while Lucy is trying to haul a Christmas tree up to her apartment using a rope outside the window. She slips and the tree falls. Mel watches with confusion.

While You Were Sleeping - long-haired calico cat Mel watches Lucy with tree

Mel is only seen again close to the end of the film as Lucy is taking the ornaments off of her tree.

While You Were Sleeping - long-haired calico cat Mel watches Lucy take ornaments off tree

An article from the August 2nd edition of the Herald-Journal explained how Princess was left behind when her owner passed away and that the family fought over all of the effects of the deceased but no one wanted the cat. The attorney called Dale Armon’s no-kill shelter in Bloomington, IL but there was no room for the cat, so Armon adopted the cat herself. “Immediately the cat hopped on my bed,” Armon explained, “And she always allowed me to share a pillow with her.”

Armon named the cat Princess because she acted like one. Armon thought Princess was so beautiful she started acting as an agent for her, getting her into several commercials before her big break in this film.

Featured Feline: After Lucy is given Peter’s things at the hospital she finds a bag containing a can of cat food. Realizing he has a cat that has been left unfed, she goes to his apartment. She is surprised by Peter’s brother, Jack (Bill Pullman), who questions her connection with Peter. She explains she stays at the apartment all the time with the cat. Jack says Peter doesn’t have a cat. Then a Persian cat appears.

While You Were Sleeping - Persian cat Fluffy appears around corner