Has Anyone Read "The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats?" Highly recommended!

[PersianCatLover]

I've live in St. Leonards since I moved from the USA to here due to an internet romance that took lol!

We need to get together and talk cats.  I have to warn you that we are old age pensioners now though just in case you need more of a rocknroll type of friend lolol!

Love ya
da Suz
email me at b.newlands@tesco.net if you want to get together and talk cats some time.  I'm dying to show off my two fur-faced kids!

[Mymblesdaughter]

It's a small world isn't it. 

I didn't think you were turning vegan, ha ha don't worry I'm not going to come around to your house and take all your meat away.

Yes I do live in St Leonards in the Maze Hill area. I've only lived here 2 years but I really love it, the only thing is there are no jobs. How long have you lived here?

I got my two cats from CHAT at Brede.

[PersianCatLover]

Hi, Ya.
Just for the record, I am not turning vegan, just considering cutting way back on meat, and making sure the meat is produced locally and by a farmer I know....

I would never try to turn my cats into vegans...I know some do, but cats are obligate carnivores and you would be starving your cat to death on such an unnatural diet, of course....it is just something we have to commit to if we are going to have cats.  If you do go raw though, don't forget that the cats need taurine.  Learn the rhyme that says "Cats can eat cat food, dogs can eat dog food, but cats can't eat cat food as there is no taurine in it.

Probably preaching to the choir here, but there is always some first timmers that come through and they need the message.  Right?  Right!

Love ya,
da Suz....ps will try the cats on some vegie cheese though....it might keep them from eating everything on my plate.  They are taught to sit quietly until a bit of chicken or steak is offered, but some times a pathetic little paw will tap me on the shouulder and stick a furry face right up against mine and say please?  She still has to do "lie down" or "sit" before getting it.  One of the funniest things to watch is if I call "einnie meanie chilli beany out the salukis and the cats all line up  in a row and sit on command each await their turn for a treet (usually their dental treat) and stay until released.  This was not taught to them.  The dogs taught them and they figured out how to manipulate me into including them into this routine.

I know enie meenie chili wheanie sounds weird but it has to do with raising a lot of puppies whilst watching Bulwinkle cartoons...sigh

[Greenlaner]

Thanks for all that information about the author

[PersianCatLover]

Hi Mumblesdaughter,
Yes, it is in St. Leonards.  Do you live nearby?  Only answer if you don't care who knows where you live though, okay?

It just seems weird that you would know St. Leonards as it is such a scruffy little place lol

[PersianCatLover]

Hiya,

The books full title is "The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats, a Journey into the Feline Heart" and is by Jeffrey Masson (Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson) published in 2002.  He has also written such books as "Dogs Never Lie About Love" and Final Analysis: The Making and Unmaking of a Psychoanalyst" and "Against Therapy: Emotional Tyranny and the Myth of Psychological Healing".  I guess you would say that he isn't the usual "Story of my Moggy" writer    He doesn't speak down to the reader though, but it reads sort of like a travelogue/cat story/ let me tell you about living on the beach story.  But inside all the cheerful and not so cheerful stories about his cats he asks questions of himself about what the cats are thinking...and in doing so makes you look at your own cat in a very different way.  I loved it. 

And yes, I'm going to read Against Therapy and some of his other things just because the titles intrigue me...go figure 

[Mymblesdaughter]

Hey Persian cat lover you say you live off Battle Road, is that Battle Road, St Leonards?

I'm sure your cat will forgive you for going veggie, there seem to be quite a few veggies on this forum. My cats are happy with me being vegan, they eat meat, I haven't turned them veggie yet. Although they do like vegan cheese!

It's great for your health as well.   

[Greenlaner]

Who has wrote this book?  Sounds interesting

[PersianCatLover]

Great to hear, Jack.
Since I am fairly new to the cat fancy (rescue style) I would love to hear what you thought of it.

I had a fair bit of trouble with only a couple of things, one was how he made me examine myself and my motives almost more than he made me think about cats and the other was his insistence that cat should be free to go anywhere they want in the great outdoors.  Now, I don't know about you, but I don't live on a lovely island that has no snakes and one poisonous but shy spider. There are big bad things outside my house.  I live on a lovely little close, but up above that is one of the busiest roads in our area, Battle Road.  There are are lot of cats in our close, many of which I have known since I moved here from the USA 12 years ago and they live out there just fine except for a couple with raging ear mites, I have yet to hear of one being hit by a car.  Still I have the excuse of my heavily coated very laid back Persians for not letting them outside, but I do have three climbing frames, lots of ledges by big windows and since both my husband and I are home all day, they have us to provide all the play they want or need (or demand), I even grow quite a bodaceous stand of cat grass along the edge of one of my Frendh windows.

Still the author made me feel mean for not letting them out...but I wonder if it is true that what they have never had they can't miss?  My cats learned from day one that they must stand back from the door if I open it, and I do that cautiously with a lot of body blocking, both because of the cats and my two Salukis who have the combined brains of a brick when it comes to running into the middle of the road.  All four are micro-chipped, by the way, and I am afraid to let them wear collars, though they wear one if they have to go to the vets complete with name and address and tele number and the big message that "I am micro-chipped".

Since you are a moderator and I am sure read everything that comes in (I did when I had my own dressage site) what is your opinion?  Would love to hear it.

[JackSpratt]

I have indeed. Actually, I own it.

[PersianCatLover]

Has anyone read the Nine Emotional Lives of Cats?  If not, I highly recomment it!  It's really informative, and while I do not agree with some of the opinions of the author, I really learned a lot, not just about my cats but about me.  A splendid read, and easy to grasp the concepts he introduces like Companionship, Fear, Jealousy...

I really was never a cat person until I rescued Gizmo my red persian, and it took me ages to try to learn her language....now three years later having adopted Widget the blue cream it seems like we communicated from the very first moment and it took only about a month for her to really settle in with me as her person.  She didn't know what the slow blink was...she would just stare at first...but now I get eye-kisses right back!

Try this book...its a bit different from the typical "this is the story of my cat" book or the cat mystery genre, but well worth it.  Try to find it used on Amazon as it is spendy new in hardback

Da Suz, Giz and Widgggy Woooo.

PS with all this talk about horsemeat in the press well...I know my cats can't be veggies, but am thinking about becoming one myself.  I'm not worried about eating bute or whatever, I'm worried about the cruelty involved in transport and slaughter of my favourite animal.  I rode dressage for 50 years...but below?  I think that Wiggie and Gizmo might protest.  What do you think?