TRUE CAT LOVERS

The best and most committed cat caretakers I know personally have loved cats all their lives.

So, are we born loving cats?

I must have been, because as far back as I can remember I’ve loved every cat I’ve ever seen.

Cat Lover
Cat Lover – Ruth with her cats Walter and Jozef
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

My late mother told me that from when I was a toddler if I saw a cat in our garden I’d run out to stroke it, even if I was in the middle of being dressed. She worried the cat might scratch me but I don’t remember that ever happening, she taught me to be gentle with all animals and I suppose if the cat didn’t want to be petted he would have ran away from me.

Cats were irresistible to me even then and they still are.

I deeply love and respect the 2 cats we have now and I melt inside at their perfection every time I look at them, as I have over all the cats in my life for the last 38 years.

The love and trust in their eyes as they look at us shows they appreciate us as much as we do them.

We are a family.

But also I love and care for all other cats too, not only friends and neighbours cats, the welfare of each and every cat no matter where in the world they are, is important to me.

My late father was a dog man, he didn’t like cats and although I love dogs too, especially the family dogs of my childhood, my life felt incomplete without cats in it.

My mother was a cat lover and her family always had cats around and she missed that when she was married, but after our dad died suddenly we were able to have cats in our home and that gave her great comfort.

So, do we inherit our love of cats from a parent?

I’ve known people who said they were afraid of cats, there is a genuine phobia called Ailurophobia, but mostly their fear was only because they hadn’t been around cats and didn’t understand them.

So, are people who learn to love cats as committed to their welfare and do they love them as much as people who have always loved them?

Breeders of pedigree cats and interbred wild/domestic cats, by breeding and selling those cats add to the numbers of ordinary unwanted cats who might otherwise have had a home.

So are they true cat lovers?

Some people only like a certain breed of cat and pay enormous sums of money to ‘own’ the cat even though there are thousands of equally beautiful cats in Rescue Shelters desperately needing homes.

So, are people who only want a pedigree cat, true cat lovers?

Maybe we true cat lovers are born loving cats more than any other species because as much as I love all animals they have never give me the pleasure seeing a kitten or a cat, or even a picture of one, gives me.

Ruth

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7 thoughts on “TRUE CAT LOVERS”

  1. Dan you are a true cat lover and I feel for you not being able to have your own cats just now. I longed for a cat all my childhood.
    Have you heard the saying ‘A home without a cat is just a house’
    It’s true.I hope you get your 3 cats one day.
    Barbara is right in that the best cat caretakers treat them as family but don’t expect them to behave like human family, they are cats, they like being cats, they don’t want be treated as a humam baby. I hate seeing cats dressed up, I don’t believe they enjoy it, they just tolerate it as cats tolerate everything that happens to them, because they have no other choice.

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    • Yes, cats should be respected as cats and for all the characteristics of a cat. That would prevent huge numbers of relinquishments because it would straighten out wrong expectations about keeping a cat – the biggest cause of giving cats up.

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  2. Oops. submitted on accident.

    I too have loved every cat I’ve ever seen. I can’t have any cats right now. My sister and I share the family home and she has Cystic Fibrosis. She is allergic to cats and some dogs too. I have three cats that stop by and peek in the screen door every night. I have my niece’s two cats and my nephews kitten. I also have all the beautiful cat pix and vids of many friends online. So I get by. But when the day comes that I can get a cat I will go to the shelter and get three stays I connect with (and get along). Why three? Six is too many and two aren’t enough. I just need three. End of story.

    Sorry, bit out of it due to pain meds (for back and hip). I really enjoyed reading your comments and the blog. We are all of a like mind. Good for us!\Dan

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  3. As you can see by my avatar <– I have loved cats all my life too. That is me with Blackie, one of many kittens and cats I have loved. I think that there are cat lovers who appreciate the beauty of cats and want to show them. I know people whose cats love to get dressed up for pictures (think Daisy the Curly Cat) and don't seem to mind because they get a treat for it.There are also people like my dear Aunt Betty Marple. She was a cat lady and a packrat. She had a racoon, birds, dozens of Manx cats and a dog. I must say that I have compassion for these people — and I respect all of your positions on any of the above topics and always will, I'm just that way — but I can understand why they are this way. My Aunt Betty's wasy was criminal now and I agree with that. People that show cats or dress them up to share pix on the internet I get it, but I would never do it. I guess that is the whole point of my writing here, I would never do any of these things.

    I think that true cat lovers love all animals and care about the condition of all cats, no matter where it may be

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  4. I think you make a good point Ruth. From the outside looking in you can see many cats in many households. The domestic cat is very popular. But not all the people who keep a cat are cat lovers. In fact the percentage might be quite low.

    Cat lovers set very high standards. To love cats I feel you have to love animals and nature. A person who loves animals might prefer cats but she still loves animals generally or at least has a deep respect for them.

    I would also expect a cat lover to have a healthy dose of morality, decency and humility.

    It probably comes from a mixture of inherited preferences and the environment in which the child was raised.

    If a child is brought up in close contact with cats there must a good chance she will like or love cats.

    Conversely in a home where the parents declare their hatred for cats and the need to kill them the child will quite likely follow suit.

    A true cat lover will see through all the emotional clutter and baggage that clouds conversations and dialogues about cat welfare and find the answer to cat welfare in the words “respect the cat”.

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  5. This is purely my own opinion but I think there are people who like cats, these are the people who sort of put up with the family cat if someone else feeds “it” and cleans the litter tray etc. Then there are people who love cats who love to be around cats and enjoy all the responsibilities of having a cat in the home but who also see nothing odd in using the cat for showing or breeding and keeping the cat indoors for safety and then there are people who truly empathise with cats, these are the people who want to make the cat’s life as happy as possible but recognise that though the cat is, and should be, a full member of the family he should not live as a mini human so they set about providing a safe home but also allow the cat to live a cat’s life while providing love, care and play. I believe you belong in the last group Ruth, you love cats in an unselfish way, you love them for being cats and not as possessions. The downside of this is the worrying when they’re out enjoying their freedom (and the pleasure of fresh air and green grass to eat or roll in) in case anything happens to them, of feeling guilty when something unusual happens in the home and they run to hide because you can’t explain that you will keep them safe no matter what, and as they get older the dread of losing them. But what point would there be in having a cat or two in your life if you didn’t appreciate every moment they are there and help them to do the same. I like to think I come into the last group as well.

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