A multitude of distinctive varieties of cats populate our cities.

According to the song "Jellicle Cats," the leading number in the musical CATS, there are practical cats, dramatical cats, skeptical cats, allegorical cats, mystical cats and rabbinical cats (16 other varieties are sung). The production of CATS currently on stage at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts imbues dignity into each personality via expert dancing, prancing and meow-infused singing.

In many respects, this masterful production returns cats to the respected cultural pedestal that had all but escaped them in recent years.

When the CATS musical first emerged in London's West End in 1981 as Andrew Lloyd Webber's adaptation of T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, it took the the theater world by storm, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical. For the first time, household cats were made relatable through human-like characters.

Yet sometime after the musical's 1982 successful arrival on Broadway, the reputation of cats began to falter. There was the depiction of the species as a lazy lasagna vacuum in the Jim Davis comic strip, Garfield. The grotesque book 101 Uses for a Dead Cat became a New York Times Best Seller for 27 weeks, encouraging the sadistic sequels 101 More Uses of a Dead Cat and Uses of a Dead Cat in History.

As the 1990s wore on, so did the cat incrimination.

Consider the talking black cat, Salem, in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. The character's demeaning wit and endless supply of one-liners was on par with a contemporary sassy gay friend, effectively confirming the feline stereotype as cruel, antisocial beings.

In 2002, a distasteful (and misleading) image from Fark.com surfaced with the text "Every time you masturbate... God kills a kitten." It seemed that the animal had fallen into such ill repute that ailurophobia — the persistent, irrational fear of cats — had gripped the entire nation.

Cats hit rock bottom in the collective conscious with the advent of the LOLcat in 2006, followed by the rise of "I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER?" in 2007. While the non-commercialized phenomenon may have brought laughs — nay, LOLs — the viral images insinuated that the cat is an inane animal incapable of proper English. Through its tabloid-like depiction of cats in compromised positions, the LOLcat meme solidified the perception of the noble creature as not an intelligent counterpart to dogs, but a mere silly pet.

Another blow came to cats with the 2006 cancellation of The Aristocats II, which had ensured an honorable depiction of dignified felines.

Just when it seemed that the cat's reputation couldn't sink any lower, a compilation of cat glamour shots, entitled Glamourpuss: the Enchanting World of Kitty Wigs, arrived on bookshelves in 2009. Diminutive photos of cats wearing synthetic hairpieces were juxtaposed with such repelling human-like quotations as, "I want a pony!" and "I really prefer living in Phoenix because the weather's so mild here and the Houston humidity was doing nothing for my hair."

Leave it to the Hobby Center's musical reprise to restore the dignity of the cat. In its Houston incarnation, CATS champions the feline spirit through its keen depiction of cat pathos, from aging, struggling in the urban world and, ultimately, the pursuit of happiness. Through character tableaus, the songs endeavor to define both cat and human psychology and sociology.

No cat is perfect, and the same goes for this production of CATS. There's the regrettable inclusion of the Italian aria number, "Growltiger's Last Stand," in which the character of Asparagus ("Gus, the Theatre Cat") is taken over by a politically-incorrect troupe of "Siamese."

Still, the Jellicle Cats pull through with such stellar performances as those of de-facto narrator Munkustrap by Zach Hess, Shimbleshanks "The Railway Cat" by Louie Napoleon, and of course, Grizabella by Kathryn Holtkamp.

As they ramble around a London junkyard set singing to Webber's eclectic score, no character in CATS can recover the glory of the sphinx, but the production undoubtedly represents a new day for cats. As LOLcats fade into the oblivion of overdone online relics, CATS and cats have figuratively and literally taken back the stage.