Me, You, and Other Cat People

A cat lover, ailourophile, has good company throughout time.  Here’s a list of people who loved cats from “yesterday, and today.”  Know any?

• Aesop (fabulist)
• St. Agatha (“Santo Gato” or Saint Cat)
• Loni Anderson (Actress)
• Cleveland Amory (author and animal rights activist)
• Charles Baudelaire (French poet)
• Orson Bean (humorist, actor)
• Jeremy Bentham (British pilosopher)
• Ambrose Bierce (writer)
• Otto von Bismarck (German statesman)
• Amanda Black (actress)
• Ray Bradbury (science fiction author)
• Anne Bronte (British writer)
• Charlotte Bronte British writer)
• Emily Bronte (British writer)
• Samuel Butler (British writer)
• Lord Byron (British poet)
• Karle Capek (Czechoslovakiann playwright)
• Roger Caras (author, brodcaster)
• Claudia Cardinale (Italian film actress)
• Thomas Carlyle (Scottish writer, historian)
• Lewis Carroll (British writer)
• Raymond Chandler (detective novelist)
• Vicomte de Chateaubriand (Grench writer, politican)
• Lord Chesterfield (British statesman)
• Sir Winston Churchill (British prime minister)
• Georges Clemenceau (French prime minister)
• Jean Cocteau (French writer)
• Colette (French writer)
• Confucius (Chinese religious leader)
• Robin Cook (writer)
• Calvin Coolidge (U.S. President)
• Gustave Courbet (French artist)
• William Cowper (British writer, hymnologist)
• Countee Cullen (poet)
• Sandy Dennis (actess)
• Bo Derek (actress)
• Benjamin Disraeli (British politician)
• Alexander Dumas (British politican)
• Albrt Einstein (physicist)
• T.S. Elliot (writer)
• Erte (designer)
• Sophia Loren (Italian actress)
• Ernest Hemingway (writer)
• Me
• You

Obviously, this list was compiled by someone other than me.  Must have known a lot of foreign famous people.  Just shows you cats are loved worldwide.

-the cat’s meow…”Meow About Your Cat!”

My Cat, My Therapist

I know my cat makes me feel good, but medical reasearch supports it, so now it’s official. Cats and other pets have warm and positive effects on the elderly, the handicapped, and instutionalized people.

Way back in 1977, Drs Aaron Katcher (“Kat…?”) and Brica Friedmann of the University of Pennsylvania studied the recoveries of heart-attack victims and found that those with pets were more apt to recover and stablize their health in the form of lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, and “better attitude” such as an all over sense of well-being.  Medical tests prove that simply petting a cat tends to lower one’s blood pressure.  Heart patients without pets showed a tendency for having additional heart attacks, some resulting in death.

Got your cat, yet?

Another study maintained that pets act as a catalyst for feelings which are eventually transferred to other people.  Those who study pets and people say that animals can bridge the gap between those people who tended to reject others, aiding them in the gradual acceptance of personal relationships.  So, evidently, if you know someone who is a bit unsociable, if they gradually can accept an animal, they’ll be kinder and gentler with people!  Be careful, though, as too much pet company could cause one who is not used to it, to mistreat the animal!

It’s safe to assume, that care-giving, begets care-giving.

-Marisue, the Cat’s Meow!…so…Meow About Your Cat!