How Cats Have Helped My Son With Autism “WE can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.”
Perhaps German philosopher Emmanuel Kant’s words partly explain why Man’s justice system dropped the charges against the two Sarnia, Ontario men who in 2014 shot a domesticated cat (later named Joe by his saviours) 17 times in the head with a pellet gun, destroying an eye.
A community newspaper editor wrote in a column that she found troubling that more than a third of surveyed adults “would, under some circumstances, choose to save the life of their dog over the life of a human being, if they could save only one.”
I’m surprised the percentage isn’t much higher!
Maybe the courthouse protestors demanding justice for the brutalized feline Joe—those to whom the said editor declared in print, “Hey crazy people, it’s [just] a cat”—feel the same way as I, that it’s understandable for one to save the life of their beloved pet over that of a stranger.
It seems to me that the editor couldn’t relate to the heartfelt motivation behind such public outrage, regardless of it being directed at such senseless cruelty to an animal, and therefore perceived them as being somehow misguided.
The protesters, perhaps unlike those who grew up on an animal-food production farm, may not see pet animals in a subordinate manner but instead cherish—therefore protect—their pets as indeed family members.
To be clear, along with human intelligence comes the potential for maliciousness for the sake of malice. While, being of notably lower intelligence, animals can react violently it’s typically due to distrust; however, leave it to humans to commit a spiteful act, if only because we can. (After all, haven’t you noticed how, to their credit, unusually nice people with, for example, Down Syndrome are when compared to the average, or above, IQ population? I doubt it’s coincidental.) I find that with our four-legged friends there’s a beautiful absence of that undesirable distinctly human trait.
Hence the jerks who, maybe with nothing better to do, gratuitously assaulted Joe.
But what particularly annoys me about such rather reckless commentary is that, rather than being just about a viciously assaulted cat, or any another animal, it’s about the very serious matter of the needless torture of an animal by two creeps, who (besides plain not liking cats) likely justified it to themselves with the lame typically-human line, ‘Hey, it’s just a cat, after all.’
As far as my black pet cat (Simon) goes, he’ll never be just a cat: in fact, he’ll slightly whine like a small child when wanting something, for example as he with expectation stands next to his grooming brush; and he’ll having much to say via loud trilling or an adorable combination of meow and trill, or refusing to eat food dropped to the floor while everyone else eats at the table—he is quite the very loved family member and clearly knows it judging from his enthusiastic character responses. And I don’t consider myself at all crazy for saying so.
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WHENEVER I observe stress in the facial expression of my mother, a typical senior, I also observe how that stress drains from her face and is replaced with joyful adoration when pet feline Simon enters the room: “Hi, sweetheart,” she’ll say. And I know that countless other seniors—not to mention myself (whether consciously or subconsciously)—with pets also experience the emotional benefits of hosting a cherished pet.
As for our pleasantly docile current pet cat, his predecessor had on occasion bitten and/or scratched me when she’d gotten irritated—or teased, of which I’m known to be guilty—yet she was nonetheless cherished her for being herself and for the therapeutic benefits just her presence alone bestowed upon us.
Because they have scent glands on their cheeks and hips, cats tend to (adoringly) rub their hips and cheeks against their human hosts’ legs (or other parts of our bodies when we’re sitting) as a sign of both affection and to mark us as their territory, however unconsciously. This is also why they just love to have their cheeks scratched.
Admittedly, though, many cat lovers misinterpret pet felines’ licks along their hands, arms or even cheeks, as affection, while the cats most probably are simply savoring the natural salt on their hosts’ skin. Regardless, many of us love watching/feeling our cats’ little pink tongue enjoying the salt. Also, when a host is feeling depressed, a pet cat’s endearing purrs and murrs (i.e. trilling) can lift one’s heavy heart, and one’s left only desiring to hear some more of the feline’s soul-soothing chatter.
So, being a fan of felines myself, I often enjoy the presence of others’ pet felines. Indeed, when one day I’d missed an editorial board members meeting of a publication to which I had often contributed non-feline-related writing (I’d gotten my days mixed up and therefor seemingly made the long trip from White Rock to Vancouver for naught), I still managed to receive some satisfaction by the fact I was once again able to visit the nearby veterinarian clinic and pet their mellow black cat mascot—who happened to look just like our family cat …
MY mother has always maintained that, “humans are the real ‘animals’; it’s the animals who are human[e].” For so long, domesticated animals have been abused and discarded like trash if they were not adored by some animal lover. Ironically, this cruelty occurs while the abusers are ignorant to the healthy symbiosis existing between animals (many of us see them as family members) and their loving and appreciative human hosts—especially physically and/or mentally ill hosts.
(FYI: Perhaps not surprising, there’s increasing evidence that pet felines greatly help autistic children cope with their daily emotional struggles. https://www.petful.com/behaviors/how-cats-helped-my-son-autism/
Indeed, animals have an influence over humanity that many in society cannot fathom. And this beautiful reality of animals’ positive emotional influence over their human hosts can be beneficial to the animals, as well. Besides numerous studies revealing the health-benefits to humans (their high blood pressure is alleviated, for example) when in proximity, and especially when in physical contact, with a domesticated animal, the fact is, when a cat or dog, for instance, is lovingly petted down along its back, it acts as a sort of soothing and healing massage, and that animal’s lifespan and good health increase considerably.
Indeed, in her book Positivity, Barbara L. Fredrickson notes that while humans have natural opioids in addition to natural dopamines plus oxytocin (a healthy neuropeptide), so too do animals. Furthermore, while people who receive hugs every day have higher levels of circulating oxytocin and lower blood pressure, similar effects can be found in pets. “Animals stroked lovingly on their bellies over a stretch of days come to have higher oxytocin and lower blood pressure compared with untouched animals.”
Many health-care homes are already adopting cats and/or dogs to reside at the facilities, and the data available has revealed the improvement in the health of many patients since the facilities’ adoption of the pets. In a June 14, 2000, Vancouver Sun article it was written that scientific proof reveals a “powerful man-beast bond that transforms lives, alleviates depression and disease, gives direction to the blind and comfort to the lonely and fills homes with a measure of uncomplicated joy that is impossible to fully appreciate until it is gone.” This fact has but vastly increased in awareness and even measurability since then and will almost certainly continue to do so.
All of which is why I was pleased to read in a news story some time ago that the B.C. branch of SPCA had a limited-time “moratorium” on its non-health-related euthanasia of excess unwanted animals, the vast majority of which were/are felines. To solidify a no-kill policy within SPCA policy would undoubtedly be a spectacular achievement in the history of “humane” humanity.
It’s very true that when a pet animal’s host—especially a person with mental illness—loses his or her pet, it’s difficult to be philosophically positive about the loss, such as the thoughts regarding the matter put forward by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” It all seems to go out the window, though, especially in regards to my tendency to get over-attached to my pet cats, presently and even from my past.
However, it seems that in the long run, those of us who love our pet animals, do benefit greatly, as do our animal companions themselves; although the sad reality is that such mutually beneficial couplings and compassion for pet animals (and for other domesticated animals, for that matter) in general, are nowhere near as prevalent as they really could be—and definitely should be.
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AS an aside: There indeed are some guys who’ll understandably hesitate at speaking in public about their particular fondness for pet felines; for, to do so, unlike with expressing affection for a good sturdy canine friend, may be generally stereotyped as a man’s non-testosterone pet-animal inclination. And, yes, there are many people out there who’d implicitly (or even explicitly) question the normality (a.k.a. straightness) of a guy who adores his pet feline(s)—something that’s implied by first-season Seinfeld’s George Costanza, who, in a doubtful tone of voice and slight shake of his head, says to Elaine Benes (without looking at her) in regards to her boyfriend cherishing his two pet felines: “Guys with cats … I don’t know …”
George’s line came to mind when a poem I wrote and posted (accompanied by an adorable feline photo) elicited from a reader a response subtly questioning my heterosexuality, which left me feeling both embarrassed and angry.
It also brought to mind an early-1990s Vancouver Sun letter to the editor—aptly titled “A Man With a Cat Is Where It’s At”—in which the writer, a straight guy who adored his two pet felines, responded to some recently published cat-critical commentary. He frankly cautioned straight single women about relationship-seeking heterosexual guys who love dogs but dislike domesticated felines; for, what such men really want in a mate is, basically, submission—unlike the dudes with cats who more than appreciate a companion’s independent nature as well as a silky soft touch.
I further recollected how as a teen I knew two of the (if not the most) toughest, testosterone-laden, and (like myself) straight guys around, who also cherished their pet cats—albeit, no average guy would’ve foolishly openly expressed his pet-feline enthusiasm amongst his demographic peers, lest he seriously risk being unjustly deemed a wuss or in some other way having his reputation permanently besmirched.
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LET’S face it: cats have been sufficiently superficially unfortunate to have been allocated snake-like ‘vertical slit pupils’, not to mention an open-mouthed fanged hiss when feeling threatened (which always makes me wonder if there’s some shared genetic makeup), in a world that generally loves to hate snakes. Thus, for the foreseeable future they’ll likely remain entangled within a half-witted Hollywood-cliché’s implicit dislike. (Albeit a memorable pet-feline-stroking Roger Moore James Bond moment had him say to another character, “I don’t trust people who don’t like cats.”) Even the comics—especially with the (to me) unpleasant, and sometimes even vicious, Garfield cat—can induce additional contempt for the domesticated feline (especially amongst non-cat-fans).
As if that wasn’t enough, there’s the vocally progressive national commentator who, via her carte blanch columns, insists upon occasionally proclaiming her contempt for all felines (“I never liked cats”); so much so that she even suggested in a column (just prior to last All Hallows’ Eve, which isn’t a very cat friendly time of year) that Canadian politicians replace their traditional unproductively rude heckling with loud meowing. She closes the piece with the final and perhaps the most impressionable cat-stereotyping line: “My vote is for meowing because I don’t like cats and I’d like to sabotage their brand as much as possible. So if our elected politicians are going to be disrespectful in our House of Commons, they might as well channel the animal that holds us all in contempt.”
But why feel that way? Maybe as a child she was traumatically attacked by a neighbour’s aggressive cat? Or she witnessed a tom cat biting onto the back of his mate’s neck while copulating and perceived the act as a male unnecessarily physically forcing himself upon a female?
Nonetheless, I felt a little concerned and couldn’t help but somewhat cynically wonder: If this independent-minded columnist who’s a contentedly-single young woman of colour—a demographic that to me stereotypically must appreciate pet felines—actually dislikes cats that much, why then shouldn’t any of her numerous avid readers?
I always dread the feline-hating souls willing to procure personal sick-puppy satisfaction from tricking and restraining before torturing to death those sweet-natured thus likely naively-trusting cats whose owners have recklessly allowed them to wander the neighbourhood.
Perhaps resulting from past bulk contemptible treatment of their species, cats already innately sense that they’re somehow meant to be but a popular target of persecution as they’ve been throughout history. Those cats unfortunate enough to be born black were demonized thus ordered to be slaughtered by the early Church—until, of course, humane citizens strongly protested that death warrant on innocent cats. Quite poetically, preying cats were/are known to keep plague-spreading rodent numbers significantly down …
ALTHOUGH the municipal council of Surrey (B.C.) relatively recently banned the retail sale of dogs, rabbits and cats, there remains the more serious issue of the needless suffering by homeless felines.
It’s believed by the Surrey Community Cat Coalition (SCCC) that tens of thousands of stray, homeless and feral cats are roaming the huge city’s parks and streets. Annually SCCC rescues approximately two thousand cats and kittens from the streets, although many others unfortunately remain due to a lack of shelter space. From the number they rescue, almost two thirds are tame and likely abandoned thus left to fend for themselves in the wilds, which leaves me heavy of heart to just imagine their sad plight. More than a third are too feral to be adopted out, therefore those poor souls are returned to their “managed colony” after SCCC has them spayed or neutered.
These beautiful animals do experience great suffering, be it at the tearing sharp-toothed bite of a large predator or left without any shelter in the biting cold. Even with the mass deforestation to date due to rapid development, Surrey—not to mention some of its neighbouring municipalities—is still filled with wooded hide-outs for hungry coyotes (etcetera) salivating for such easy prey, especially the abandoned docile-natured felines.
Thus one must ask, Why not have all city councils legislate that all pet cats must be confined indoors when not on a torso-brace leash and accompanied by their owners? Yes, the pet cats hitherto being at leash-free outdoors liberty likely will go through some ‘withdrawal’ and cry a raucous caterwaul to be let out the door; however, keeping them healthy and safe should make their finite whining worthwhile. Until then, maybe if they’re collected and spayed/neutered as a government budgeted rule and not as a half-assed funded effort, their great reduction in number will then translate into proper appreciation—and gone for good will be the conscious or subconscious mindset of disposability: ‘Oh, there’s a lot more whence they came’.
Nonetheless, it may all sound inconveniently unfeasible to some self-serving feline owners who just want something soft to stroke now and then as though the pet cat/kitten was about as susceptible to pain and suffering as a stuffed toy animal, but such a desperate inhumane situation definitely calls for assertively meaningful compassionate action.
It really appears to me that too many people in our ‘civilized’ society allow themselves to dismiss it all. Perhaps the mentality goes that by being preyed upon by bigger carnivore creatures or mass euthanasia, that enormous superfluous quantity of feline misery should soon enough diminish.
As for their misperceived worthlessness as pets altogether by so many other people, cats can be very pleasant and amazingly attached to you if they sense enough genuine affection, including verbal attention. Besides physical contact, they should receive frequent words; in fact, judging from my cat’s behavior, they can really appreciate regular enthusiastic talking-to.
As with dogs, it’s often a case of the appreciative cat owners receiving pretty much what they put into their pet cats in regards to good companionship and health. To describe such mutually beneficial relationships I like to use the (in this case) double-meaning phraseological truism, You’ve gotta love ’em for it!
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ONE heavy-heart-content web-link example for those who doubt family-member felines’ genuine love for their hosts: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3890030/Heartbroken-cat-misses-dead-owner-spent-year-living-GRAVE-Indonesia.html#ixzz4tPLOse2d ... See more
These fantastic pets have aided in calming my son down and even inspired him over the years.
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