I’m glad I work at home so I can be with my cat. There’s nothing like making a cat happy to give you that extra buzz.
Sugar, my rescued Siamese, loves to lounge on my lap, especially when I’m sitting at the computer. She watches the screen intently except for those times when she’s fidgeting and/or sleeping.
What’s that, you say? “How can I get any work done with her in my lap?” Well, often I don’t, but, you see, that’s the magical power of cats. We’ll do things for them we might not do for our spouses. When cats purr, we listen. They’ve had 9,000 years to perfect the fine art of getting humans to do their bidding, and they’re not about to let up now.
Karen McComb, animal-communication researcher at the University of Sussex in the U.K., has recently confirmed what we might only have told our closest friends: we’re completely at the mercy of our 8-pound fur balls.
According to an article in the July 31, 2009 issue of The Week, Ms. McComb discovered that “when cats were hungry, they altered their purring so that it was eerily similar to the cry of an infant.” When McComb played back these cat cries to human listeners, “people found them almost impossible to ignore.” Indeed. Who among us can ignore our kitties when they approach us with that masterful, manipulative sound?
Cats are not the only ones in the animal kingdom with a gift for problem-solving.
While cats seem to enjoy getting others to take care of them, crows have demonstrated a more self-reliant streak. According to another article in The Week (August 28, 2009), British researchers found that when crows were presented with a small pile of stones sitting alongside an upright tube containing a small amount of water on top of which floated a wax worm, the crows started dropping stones into the tube until the water level rose high enough for them to dip in their beaks and snag the worm. They didn’t come mewling or sniveling to the nearest person to take care of the problem for them. Go, crows!
Dogs, too, have been known to display remarkable independence, at least in Moscow. According to the August 28 issue of The Week, biologist Andrew Poyarkov has been studying a group of stray dogs and discovered that they have taught themselves to use the Moscow subway. He says, “The dogs ride commuter trains every morning into central Moscow, where food is easier to find, then ride back in the evening to the outskirts of the city where they sleep. They seem to have learned how long they need to stay on the train to leave at the right station.” Clever little barkers.
Since they’re all so smart in their own ways, it occurs to me to ask, “How can we harness those skills for our own purposes? To which of our many problems should we dispatch these clever creatures to find a solution?”
I know—how about health care? I mean, if a dog can figure out how to ride a subway, and a crow can solve the worm-retrieval problem, and cats can get pretty much anything they want, maybe they can figure out how we can all have health care?
We could round up a pack of dogs, a murder of crows, a clowder of cats and seat them around a big conference table, upon which we’ve laid out a spread of kibble, worms, and Fancy Feast. We would tell them that they can have their snacks only after they’ve solved this annoying problem. I can see it all now.
“Meow, meow meow,” say the cats in their highest-frequency voice.
“Arf, Arf,” reply the dogs.
“Caw, Caw, Caw, Caw, Caw, Caw,” cackle the crows.
They then turn their heads toward the humans who have been taking careful notes. The humans smile and nod. The creatures devour their snacks, and, presto!
Medicare for all!
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Rosie Sorenson is an award-wining writer whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and other publications. Her new photo essay book, They Had Me at Meow: Tails of Love from the Homeless Cats of Buster Hollow, is about her thirteen years of loving and being loved by a colony of smart, funny feral cats. To learn more and to purchase the book, please visit her website: www.theyhadmeatmeow.com.
