Don’t Label Me! I’m Just a Big Softie

I seem to have acquired a little cattery on my front and back balcony.   Front balcony – my two cats.

Lodger 1

Lodger 2

And above, on the back balcony, after they’ve had their kittens,  the lodgers, the cats the neighbours don’t want anymore.

I’m catted out but it got me thinking  ………   

Why do people get pets?

You can’t just own a pet because you like them – nothing so simplistic!   No, no  apparently

• If you are a single woman;  then you are the sad spinster and the cat is a substitute for everything:  boyfriend, husband, children, that Prada dress you can’t afford etc.    
• If you are a couple without kids , the pet is a substitute for children.  ‘They treat that cat like it was a kid.’  Oh come on, anyone who has a cat knows they never get beyond the toddler age especially when they’re being naughty.

• If you’ve got children, the pet is a way of developing a sense of responsibility in them.

• If you’re a single man, well …… he’s cute,  because the sight of a man holding a cat/dog is irresistible.

I don’t fit into any of the above categories but people automatically put me in one.   For those of us who,  for whatever reason, reside in other countries, in my case Greece  – you don’t ‘get’ a pet you somehow acquire  one regardless of whether you ever wanted one or not.  Us foreigners and a growing number of Greeks haven’t got the heart to see an animal suffering.  In Greece, although things have improved immensely for animals and attitudes are changing, the scale of the problem is still great.    As for my own cats; I rescued them.

Cat (2) Lodger – there are 10 kittens in there!!

The back balcony houses what I call the temporary lodgers.  My neighbours, whose family own the two floor apartment building,  live above me.  They got the cats as kittens so the little girl (who is 10) could play mummies and babies with them. Cat (1)  got pregnant, left the garden and had her kitten on my balcony; her nest was my spare bedroom.