Navigating Life As A Washington Capital, Ethen Frank Takes Pride In Being A Cat Dad

ARLINGTON, V.A. — Ethen Frank is well-equipped to handle chaos.

The proof? When he's not playing for the Washington Capitals, he's raising a dog and three cats — and two of them are orange.

"I sure am (a cat dad)," Frank said proudly.

Frank and his girlfriend, Kaitlin, have rescued three cats, Luna, Shaggy and Ozzy, and a dog, a dutch shepherd named Draco. They've made navigating his hockey career, which has been a winding road from the NCAA all the way to the NHL, even more amusing.

Mornings consist of waking up early to get to the rink, but Frank doesn't necessarily need an alarm; the noises coming from the cats downstairs, where they navigate cat trees and other decorations around the house.

"You'll hear stuff early in the morning when I'm just waking up, you'll hear them running down the stairs or ripping around on the carpet or climbing up the trees," Frank laughed. "It's definitely entertaining and amusing."

Over the Olympic break, Frank, dealing with a mold problem at home, spent most of the time away moving houses, but otherwise, got to spend the rest of the vacation watching Olympic hockey and hanging out with his pets.

Sharing the locker room with a number of dads, though, Frank knows he has it easy with just the cats and dog to manage for now.

"The cats can take care of themselves. It's the dog that causes the complications with the cats, but it's not bad," Frank said. I'm sure guys with kids have it a lot worse, I don't have to change any dirty diapers or as much throw up probably as I would for a baby."

Out of his three cats, Luna, the eldest of the cats who his girlfriend rescued years ago, is near Frank every chance she gets. Shaggy, the only gray cat who they think was an orange cat in a previous life, will constantly monitor the family.

"She's a lover for me, I don't know why," Frank laughed. My girlfriend's the one who rescued her and did all the hard work and pretty much brought her back to life. I don't know why, but she just loves me more than anything."

When he's not at home, he'll tune into the webcam that he has set up at home just to see what the cats are up to.

At the end of the day, having pets at home has made the harder parts of being an NHLer just a little easier.

"It's really nice," Frank said, adding, "I have to take the dog out for quite some time in the afternoons, but once he's asleep, I get to go hang with the cats. They're all pretty chill and they love their attention, so they're always crawling around us."