How to Think Like a Cat - Stephane Garnier 2018

Your Cat Trusts You

Your Cat’s Day

1.15: OBLIGATORY SIESTA

· Although your cat will surely spend half the afternoon sleeping, you usually won’t be able to do the same.

· However, following lunch and a relaxing stroll, you will surely still have a quarter of an hour, maybe even thirty minutes, left before returning to your desk.

· Why not try a fifteen-minute micro-siesta? You will feel re-energised as if you had slept for several hours.

· More and more companies are introducing this practice in order to make their staff more efficient. The cat’s siesta has become a business tool!

· Above all, it’s a means of recovering from a lack of sleep, to boost your energy or in anticipation of a big night out with your friends.

’It is no compliment to be the stupidly idolised master of a dog whose instinct it is to idolise, but it is a very distinct tribute to be chosen as the friend and confidant of a philosophic cat’

H.P. LOVECRAFT, ’CATS AND DOGS’

Once a cat has chosen you as a life companion, they will trust you fully, absolutely, almost blindly. For example, when you stroke your cat, it may roll over on its back, a position that cats will never naturally put themselves in (except when they are somewhere they feel entirely safe), because it is much too vulnerable a position and they would find it too difficult to flee or defend themselves. And yet, caress by caress, and after many kisses and other gestures of affection, you will win your cat’s trust and it will sit on your lap or alongside you, in the most improbable positions, to be stroked again and again, to play and to have its belly scratched.

This deep trust can be displayed in various ways, but certain behaviours are clear indicators of it.

How much do we trust other people?

It often happens that we find it hard to trust again, following disappointment in love or friendship. As much as we believe the other person, we always remain vigilant, attentive to the slightest sign of something we interpret (often wrongly) as a false step to come, or a little lie in waiting.

Such a suspicious attitude can do us a real disservice in our lives. How can you be happy if you’re constantly living in fear of being betrayed by someone else at any moment? It’s impossible.

There is no other way of finding tranquillity and zest for love again than by relearning to trust, blindly, almost as cats do.

But, like your cat, you shouldn’t place your trust in just anyone, nor immediately open wide the door to your feelings and to your life.

Follow your instinct with the people you meet; it will never let you down. And as soon as you feel you have met the right person, be it in friendship or in love, don’t shut yourself off from happiness by remaining in a stance of fear and distrust.

Open the sluice gates of your heart, let yourself go, and trust. There won’t be any other choice or possible path to take, if you want to live this chance at happiness to the full.

Tame your fears. Love and trust with discernment.