Lessons for Humans 4. Learn balance

 

You can see this on video here _ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOkx5Ae5_1w 

Humans are clumsy animals with serious disabilities. As a result of having only two legs (bad) instead of four (good), their ability to balance is poor. 

So poor that some of the older humans try to add a  third leg by using a stick. It's pathetic to see them staggering along. Others go further and add four legs to their existing two by using a walking frame. That's verging on the weird.

In contrast we cats have excellent balance. It's not just that we have four legs. We are also superior in that we have a tail - a flexible tail that can wave from side to side and upwards and downwards. 

A dog has a tail but while it contributes to balance, it cannot help really difficult balancing actions. It is too stiff.

What can humans learn from us? Despite having no tail and only two legs, they can at least make an effort to improve their poor balance by occasionally using only one leg.

I suggest that all humans should spend five minutes standing on one leg, then on the other.  (Think flamingo!). If they do this conscientiously their balance will improve a little.

Of course, they will never achieve the graceful balance of us cats!

Lessons for Humans 3. Speak Your Gratitude.

Hear the purr at Celia's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMH0Q-3hEcw

 

We show our pleasure and gratitude by purring or by snuggling up close. Or both. We do this when humans do something we like.

Gratitude works.... If we purr at them when we are eating specially nice food, they are more likely to give it to us again.  

So humans could learn from us. Humans are verbal beings. The poor things can't purr. But they can make a wide variety of vocalisations, which they call speech.

So humans, speak your gratitude. Remember to say thank you when other people do something you like.

And say a big thank you - with smiles and hugs where appropriate - when another human does you a favour.

Remember, gratitude spoken aloud often brings more favours! We cats don't purr for nothing!

 

Lessons for humans. 2. Avoid self pity.

 Humans don't deal with personal disasters as well as we cats do. We cats don't waste time feeling sorry for ourselves. We learn to have fun, even if we have major problems.

Take Tanni, for instance. She was only a kitten when she lost a front leg in a car accident. You might think that she would become some sort of invalid.

Not Tanni. Within 24 hours she was leaping around and playing with cat toys, determined to have fun again. She even chased a bit of fluff on the veterinary floor when she came to after the amputation. No languishing around in the cat bed. 

Later when she went to her forever home, she showed her humans how she could climb up trees with only three legs and catch mice with only a single paw. Anything that a cat with four legs could do, she did with only three.

Lessons for humans. Make sure you have fun, even if you have the bad luck to be disabled.

Lessons for humans. 1. Keep clean

I wish humans could learn to wash as often as I do - and to do a more thorough job. I clean every area of my body at least three or four times daily.

Indeed about 20% of my time is spent washing myself - my tail, my paws, my back, my belly and those intimate areas that I reach by pushing one leg in the air while balancing on my backside.

Humans can't do that.

Instead they wallow in water in a bath sometimes for hours, or what seems like hours. Too long I think.

Picked up as a stray, Caesar has a good wash

The impatient ones step into a shower and spend perhaps 10 minutes or so washing.  Not enough time, I think.

I could teach my human how to do a better job, just using her tongue. she could start with her toes and move upwards.... 

 

Don't forget the tail

Only she can't. She is just not flexible enough. And her tongue doesn't have those little hooks that mine does.

She has a pathetic tongue. It is sort of floppy and smooth on the surface. No good for washing fur and not much use even for the bald human skin.

Sad...

How to wake up your human

 

Chest kneading

Humans are lazy animals. Every now and again, they refuse to wake up on what they call "Sunday." (And, no, I don't know what that means.)

 It is necessary to wake them. Here are some methods contributed by various cats who have refined their individual technique.

• Heavy kneading on the human chest.
• The flying pounce.
• The loud purr in ear.
• The gentle ear nip.
• Walking up and down the body.
  
• Loud mewing.
• Jumping on and off the bed.
• Nipping toes protruding from the duvet.
• Face to face rubbing, with or without purr.
• Backing the butt close to the human nose.... yes, that works!
• Bringing a dead rat on to the bed.
  
  
  
  

But the ultimate wake up call is a living rat on pillow. That always works. And it works fast.