Cats are such highly instinctual animals that seem to just simply know how to live. They are self-entertained, self validated, and if they aren't provided with food and water to survive; they hunt it down.
They do not need anyone or anything to help them survive, and although we love our domesticated felines as if they were our human child, they could probably take or leave us and not be phased.
A recent article by John Gray, leading pet author, suggests,"We should celebrate the solitary hunters among us".
The independence of Cats is one of the features that we admire most about them.
Cats don't live in packs, cannot be controlled, and cannot be swayed from the way nature intended them to live. If you think about it, a Cat is never really "owned"; it allows us to care for and love it, but it never allows us to completely possess it.
After having Dogs my whole life, when my family got our first Cat my Dad said "now remember a Cat is a temporary pet". He didn't mean that we would willingly say goodbye to our beloved Elvis after a short while, he meant that Cats are such wanderers and explorers that one day he might go on an adventure and never return. Fortunately Elvis stayed with us for his entire lifetime, but there were times when he would disappear for weeks and months on end and all we could do was trust that he was out on an adventure and would find his way back if he needed to.
One of the most attractive features of Cats is that contentment is their default state. Unlike human beings; particularly of the modern variety, they do not spend their days in pursuit of happiness. They are comfortable with themselves and their lives, and remain in that condition for as long as they are not threatened. When they are not eating or sleeping, they pass the time exploring and playing, never asking for reasons to live. Life itself is enough for them.
Gray says, "Cats enjoy happiness as a birthright; they live absorbed in the present moment. Not thinking of their lives as stories in which they are moving towards some better state, they meet each day as it comes." Rather than teaching our Cats, maybe we could try and learn from them. Life is there to be lived and enjoyed, and if we tried to mimic our Cats' adventurous and carefree ways then maybe we would all live much simpler and care free lives...
To read the full article, click here.
The pet expert at your local Just For Pets independent pet store will have lots more tips to keep your cats healthy & happy, just ask them!
