After William told me he thought I had a catnip problem and suggested Catnip Anonymous, I really gave it some thought. I looked at my catnip use and decided that, although I enjoyed the occasional binge, I was just a recreational user. I mean, I am young and healthy, and if I want to get legless with catnip why not? Where's the problem with that. I enjoy a sniff. Or two. Or even several. Lots of cats do. Doing catnip doesn't necessarily mean you are an addict.
But addiction doesn't have to be about substance use. There are behavioural addictions - human, of course. Some humans seem to be addicted to cat abuse. They shout and scream and throw things at us, when we are relieving ourselves on a nice bit of freshly dug earth in their gardens.
Others are codependant about cats. They can't get enough of them. They became cat hoarders with 70 cats in the house. William came from just such a household. There was a whole basket of kittens, and 60 adult cats. They were sitting on the sofa, under the sofa, on every window sill and ledge, every chair and table. Everywhere you looked there were cats.
William says it was awful. The cats couldn't get away from each other. As every cat knows, we like to keep a proper distance between ourselves. Friendly cats may snuggle up together, but most cats space themselves out - like these two cats on a housing estate in Nailsworth. (Celia is always photographing cats and she was just driving past these two and noticed their spacing - friendly but not too friendly.) Keeping a proper distance is how we deal with too much company. Being close is nice for humans but stressful for us. We can behave in a sociable way but we are not pack animals like dogs. We hunt alone.
Cat hoarders say they love cats but they make life very very difficult for us. Often they run out of money and so the cats in their care (if you can call it that) are disease ridden. William had fleas, lice, earmites and infectious giardia when Celia took him home. It cost her £800 just to restore him to health.
Cat hoarders are in denial. It's not love. It's cat addiction.
Hello George, who is the other fellow there with you in the photo? Just curious. Is this a new mate?
ReplyDeleteThese are just two cats that Celia happened to pass. She is cat snapping crazy.
ReplyDeleteI quite agree, space is essential - for example Opus 2 and myself live in the same house and are very happy with each others company - and most of each others habits, but we do like our space and have particular places where we like to sleep or just sit and feel the day pass - for ex. I like to sleep on the spare room bed during the day, but opus 2 likes to be outside the bathroom door(there is a warm pipe directly under the floorboard there). I like the airing cupboard sometimes in winter. But he likes the big chair in the music room - it works!
ReplyDeleteregards Opus 1 - very lonely cat -herself has been gadding off all summer. Such lack of attention, just leaving us to the mercy of the neighbours is just so careless she would be distraught were we to dissappear all the time!