How to Think Like a Cat - Stephane Garnier 2018

Your Cat Is at Ease in All Situations

Your Cat’s Day

11.00: IN THE LAND OF DREAMS

· It’s been a long day, tiring even, and it’s time to go and count mice . . . What better than your thick, soft duvet to soothe away your mental or physical aches and pains? But here comes your cat . . . to sleep with you.

· As we saw in ’Cat secrets’, it is perhaps not without good reason that your cat comes to snuggle against you or sleep on your belly.

· Have you heard of ’purr therapy’? Or the benefits of a cat who instinctively comes to lie against fatigued or diseased parts of the body? Studies regularly come to light regarding the healing powers of cats. Why not take advantage of them by sleeping with your cat? After all, cats dream of nothing else.

· Having fallen asleep next to your cat, you will often wake in the morning to find it sleeping a little further away in your bed, just to be near you, perhaps at your feet.

· Finally, even if we have lots to learn from cats, we can say that there is one point on which cats resemble humans (whether we’re a man or a woman), as illustrated by this Lebanese proverb: ’A cat’s dreams are full of mice.’

· Good night.

’A gentleman had a favourite cat whom he taught to sit at the dinner table where it behaved very well. He was in the habit of putting any scraps he left onto the cat’s plate. One day puss did not take his place punctually, but presently appeared with two mice, one of which it placed on its master’s plate, the other on its own’

THE JOURNAL OF BEATRIX POTTER

It’s fair to say that in the course of our lives, there is no lack of situations where we might feel ill at ease, even though, with time, our self-confidence grows and allows us to more easily overcome these delicate situations.

Feeling ill at ease often means feeling that we don’t measure up. But who is it we’re not measuring up to? Others, of course, and also the image we have of ourselves.

Have you ever seen your cat ill at ease? Never. It’s such a human feeling that one simply wouldn’t think to attribute it to a cat.

No, your cat will never feel ill at ease in the sense we mean, for as we have seen at various points in this book, your cat has no image to protect: YOUR CAT SIMPLY IS. Consequently, your cat is transparent in its behaviour, and no little fibs about its personality or abilities can shake its confidence or self-esteem.

This feeling of occasional uneasiness is above all down to what we ourselves have constructed, somewhat artificially. Do we run the risk of being ’found out’? Of not measuring up to the stories we’ve told, the things we’ve claimed, and everything that makes up the image that others have of us?

We feel ill at ease when we find ourselves up against it, caught between what we have said and what we actually do or are. And the bigger the lies, the bigger the gap between them and the truth, and the greater the feeling of uneasiness. It gives you an idea of the psychological state that mythomaniacs find themselves in when we finally manage to see right through them.

We also feel ill at ease when we feel we don’t measure up. This is more an issue of self-confidence, but as we have seen, being sure of yourself and believing in yourself can be cultivated when it doesn’t come naturally. And your cat is there to guide you and help you throughout this learning process.

To feel at ease in all situations, you have to be as honest as possible with yourself and with others, and not invest too much in the image you convey to them, for that image can only be a positive one when you follow the ways of your cat.

Always at ease? Not always easy! But it’s a victory your cat would be proud of.