Help needed from cat/dog owners!

[Beemer]

Hi all you animal lovers, I have a friend who is writing an article about pets and the roles they play in our lives for a national magazine. She has several people lined up for the article but is having trouble finding women for the following two categories - your dog as matchmaker and your cat as therapist. The first is self-explanatory but for the second she wants to talk to someone who confides everything in her cat, cries into its fur when she breaks up with a guy, etc. Don't laugh, they are probably better therapists than many humans!

So if any of you are interested in being featured (and photographed) for this article, and you fit the criteria (a woman aged in her 30s to 40s), could you please PM me with your details?

She's a very talented journalist with a lot of experience writing for pet magazines and I know she will do a great job.

[Dooly]

Pussies!
Got 13 of them at our place.

12 of them 4 legged.

[yungatart]

My cat is an excellent therapist!
She is so crazy and neurotic, she makes even me look sane!

[Krusti]

Cat would probably do a better job than half the therapists out there.

[Trudes]

I don't fit the category totally and don't want to be interviewed, but I walk my bosses Cavalier King Charles everyday and often have cute young men stop me and say what a cute doggy he is and try to talk, but a) I'm married, b) he ain't my pooch and c) I usually have my ipod earplugs shoved in my ears and am sweaty from walking up a hill or jogging, so don't want to stop and talk anyway. But if I was single, it would definitely be a decent way to meet men. So there must be plenty of single ladies out there who use their dog as a legitimate way to pick up men.

[judecatmad]

Mop (the boy we lost a few years ago) was truly my therapist through a terrible time in my life. He knew when I was sad. I cried into his fur many a time!

Maybe it came from the fact that the first night we brought him home, he was so distressed, howling, crying, pining for his brother and his old home - and I sat on the bedroom floor, propped up against the wardrobe, and held him like a baby all night to comfort him. He even fell asleep in my arms! We definitely had something special, me and my boy.

Not ever been like that with any of the others, altho I love them all to bits of course!

[Beemer]

Thanks guys, shame we still haven't got people for this journalist but I figured the more places I post this on, the better the chance that we'll find someone!

Me, I'm being featured as the 'cats as alternative family to children' - NOT surrogate children, just as an alternative! (A hell of a lot cheaper too, and not as much trouble when they become teenagers...) Mind you, a few years ago when I was single and things weren't going well, my cat kept me sane so I would have definitely fitted the 'cat as therapist' category! My cat (who has since passed away) would always seem to know when I was down and would climb up on my knee and comfort me. And the current crop of three aren't bad either!

Unfortunately I don't know many people with dogs and it's more likely - as Mrs K's post demonstrated - that this kind of thing would happen in larger towns and cities. The journalist is from Auckland so she may have better luck finding someone through her contacts as she has both a dog and a cat.

[Trudes]

Cat's have that innate ability to know when you're down don't they? Climb on up, lick your tears away and tickle your nose with their fur to make you smile. No wonder I used to follow our cats everywhere as a child.

[Beemer]

Cat's have that innate ability to know when you're down don't they? Climb on up, lick your tears away and tickle your nose with their fur to make you smile. No wonder I used to follow our cats everywhere as a child.

Can't disagree with you there! In fact - not that things in my life were ever bad enough to contemplate it - I could never commit suicide because while you can leave a note for your human loved ones explaining your reasons for taking your own life, I would always think it would be cruel on my cat to suddenly disappear!

Ours are spoilt rotten but I wouldn't have it any other way. That's what animals are for - to be loved and treated with respect - and they certainly pay back that love and attention in bucketloads.

Here are our three by the fire - yes, it is pathetic!

[devnull]

Not pathetic at all... ours has her own beanbag right next to the fire.
If the fire isn't going, she'll go curl up on the waterbed (until dinnertime anyway)

She competes for attention with our little boy, but also puts up with so much from him, and she isn't a "people" cat

http://www.gswsystems.com/gallery/ma...&g2_itemId=122

[Beemer]

Funny name for a kid, Mischief...

Misty - the black and white one - comes in and goes to her beanbag even if the fire isn't going, and if you walk in she glares at you as if to say "light fire - NOW!!!"