In Love - photo by Alex Dram
Is it fair to say that under the right circumstances cats can isolate people from each other? If so, it is no fault of the cat. It never can be. I am thinking of a failing relationship between wife and husband as an example. In the film Le Chat starring Simone Signoret, a famous French actress and Jean Gabin an equally famous and talented French actor, the relationship is bound by dependency and love/hate. There are a lot of relationships that are stuck together by dependency and not much else.
One party adopts a cat. The cat becomes the object of affection for one of the parties. In the film it is the husband played by Gabin who has the cat. His love, affection and companionship is directed at and from the cat. She is alienated. She shoots the cat. Pure tragedy. The film Bell Book and Candle the Siamese cat got in the way as well.
Is it fair to say that sometimes in broken relationships the cat (or dog) provides the support for one or other of the couple in the relationship?
I am sure that sometimes where there are dog and cat companions, that there can be a kind of double whammy effect going on. The man finds solace in the dog and the women in the cat. The two are driven further apart.
On a more sensitive note, I wonder if there are some stories out there of women or indeed men, who sleep with their cats on a regular basis. In fact, that is common. I do it. Then a person of the opposite sex arrives on the scene and the bed beckons....Is the cat thrown off the bed? Are the cat's well entrenched and welcome habits discarded for the sake of a possible new partner? Does the new 'other half' dislike the presence of the cat on, or even in, the bed? The possibilities are there. The cat could hinder the development of relationship. Of course this has nothing to do with the cat. But the cat will definitely dislike a disruption of his or her habits.
Cat companions are part of the family. For a single person they are the 'other half' to the relationship. Is there room in there for three?
For a true cat lover it could be argued that nothing should get in the way of their relationship with their cat. And rightly so.
And then there is the often encountered situations where the person offloads his or her gripes and problems on their cat. A cat is a wonderful listener, a sounding board. There are no arguments and cats will think what you want them to think.
The best cat caretakers, though, treat their cat as a cat. They respect them and avoid anthropomorphizing them.
I wonder if anyone has seen or even had such experiences.
Original Flickr photo
