Photo by Mimi Teller Photography – www.mimiphoto.com

Handsome, humble and heartfelt, if you ask David Conrad – co-star of CBS’ successful Friday night drama, “Ghost Whisperer” – what he’s best known for, he’ll reply, “I don’t think I’m best known as anything.” When pressed, he’ll continue, “Probably this show (Ghost Whisperer) because it’s been the most watched, although most people come up to me and say ‘You’re the guy in Wedding Crashers.’” Conrad only had two scenes and can’t even recall his character’s name, but he obviously left audiences with something worth remembering! 

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Conrad splits his time between his home in Pittsburgh and a rented bungalow in Los Angeles while filming “Ghost Whisperer.” His role as ‘Jim Clancy’ – Jennifer Love Hewitt’s paramedic husband – has been notable, but television isn’t his first love. A graduate of Brown University and later the prestigious Juilliard School in 1995, he prefers theater and the freedom that comes with performing on stage. As an actor that often flies under the media radar, Conrad seems content not to be a part of Hollywood’s “it” crowd, flagged by paparazzi. But when it comes to animals, he’s more than happy to step out into the spotlight.

Conrad’s childhood was full of furry critters. He grew up with dogs, cats, raccoons, two snakes, gerbils, hamsters and horse riding lessons. “My earliest memories are of cats actually, in a weird kind of way. I loved being around them or following them and picking them up. There are photographs of me sleeping in the crib with a cat next to me. I do remember it as a child and to this day that’s one of my favorite things when a cat jumps up in bed.”

His love for animals began with a myriad of pets, grew with his first novel – Jack London’s “Call of the Wild” – and developed into thoughts of joining Greenpeace to stop whale hunting. But unable to become an active member at the ripe old age of 10, Conrad turned to defending animals his own way.

“When I was a kid, like eight or nine, my brothers and I use to play that war board game, Risk, and I would always take all of my troops and put them on Australia and I would fight them to the death because that’s where the koalas lived. I wasn’t interested in defending any other place. I wanted [the koalas] to stay alive.”

Today, Conrad lives with his adopted stray cat, Stewart. About three years ago, he discovered two homeless black cats living at a construction site behind his Los Angeles home. “I thought they were some neighbor’s, but then I realized they kind of lived on the site. Then they started showing up at my window and I’d give them a little food or put water outside.” Gradually Conrad began caring for the two cats, Rod (mother) and Stewart (daughter), on a fulltime basis. Sadly, Rod passed away in January from old age.

Conrad gets even more feline affection back home in Pennsylvania. “I own a house in Pittsburgh and there’s a shelter right next to it. Whenever I’m there, which is about twice a month or in the summers on hiatus, they have a thing where some people volunteer to walk dogs and other people volunteer to sit in a room and play with cats. I do the cat thing.”

Why a cat man you might ask? “I think with a domestic cat, you get the safety of ‘I get to touch the wild, just for a second.’ There’s something kind of strangely reminiscent of ‘this animal’s almost wild.’ I can almost see a kind of glimmer in it’s eyes, like you would see in a wild animal, you’re either food or it doesn’t care.”

The ‘call of the wild’ still seems to resonate deeply in Conrad, maybe it’s partly because of the book, or maybe it’s just his profound respect for animals. In either case, he is purrfectly content hanging out with Stewart and letting her be the tiger in his life.