How to Think Like a Cat - Stephane Garnier 2018

Your Cat Is Serene by Nature

’The smallest feline is a masterpiece’

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Moving, constantly moving, bustling about is what many of us do, as if we were incapable of staying still for a single moment, so caught up are we in the incessant rhythm of big-city living, with the tons of stress it pours over us and which we carry home.

You’ve barely got back from work, you chuck your coat onto the sofa and you flit from dirty laundry to outstanding bills, a broom in one hand and a duster in the other.

Your cat watches you rushing between the kitchen, the lounge and the study. You wonder why it is looking at you so strangely. Yes, it’s clear that you’re disturbing your cat, but also that it is trying to figure out whether you’ve had a sudden attack of serious idiocy.

Pick up the remote control for your DVD player and press ’Pause’. This is not just a figure of speech; do it for real. Take a long breath in, then breathe out slowly. You will feel a deep, inner peace, as if you had just placed your baggage on the ground. A smile will light up your face, and, through this action and your cat’s gaze — which hasn’t left you for a second — you will become aware of having switched from the frenzy of a working day into the useless frenzy of another sort of working day, made of hyperactivity and nerves.

Of course household chores need to be done, but there is no reason not to approach them in a calmer, stress-free manner.

If, however, you continue bustling about, you will see your cat calmly stand up and pad away to find a calmer place to settle down and clean itself, and maybe doze. You might even fancy you see your cat shake its head while saying to itself: ’Incorrigible human! Hardly home, and already it’s stress-central here. I’m off to hunker down in that pile of clean sweaters in the bedroom. Should be nice and tranquil there for a little while, at least.’

And, throwing a final meow in your direction before steering a path for those soft, sweet-smelling clothes that you’ll only have to clean again later, you might comprehend something like: ’Hey, while you’re at it, don’t forget to fill my bowl with kibble and change my litter, it fair stinks in there!’

Stop bustling about all over the place: it’s such a waste of energy. Learn to be serene.

Food for Thought

’Cats are mysterious folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of’

SIR WALTER SCOTT