A pet is a symbol of virtue, its happiness a test of our humanity. This year it’s also a marker of electability…
y friend Shay has acquired a cat. It started when her family got a kitten, but then the kitten attracted a stray, who entered the house and ate all the food, much like that awful tiger who came to tea. He’s a big guy, muscular, itchy, needy, and they took him to the vet, to discover he was unchipped. They put up posters, they asked online if neighbours had lost a cat. “Enjoy your new cat!” said the neighbours. The vet’s advice was not to feed it or pay it any attention.
They compromised, with a bed in the shed and food outside. Foxes used the bed as a toy – the cat stoically remains at their window. Along the way, Shay’s young daughter has named it Mr Fish, a name both formal and disgusted.
Owning a pet today, it’s clear, has very little to do with the animal itself. Instead, like the choice to have children, the decision to own a pet is tied into all the stories we tell ourselves about who we want to be, stories derailed sometimes by nostalgia, stress and a human need to care. Last year, the Pope declared that “dogs now sometimes take the place of children,” to which I’d add, actually, they are often even more beloved, even more special, as they are so much more simple to love, so devoted and soft and other. And, as shown by the death threats Lily Allen met, they are easier to advocate for than humans, too, as they don’t complicate matters by answering back.
Shay is fretting over Mr Fish. She doesn’t want to take responsibility for him, but she doesn’t want to let him perish either, in a cold suburban winter, bullied by foxes, the risk of choking on a KFC bone while her kitten enjoys dinner by the fire. Plus, now he has a name. I don’t know what advice to give her beyond the reminder that he is not a test or a symbol or a weapon. That sometimes a cat is just a cat.
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