In relation to animals

I’m curious about animals in the same way that most people are.

If I see something unusual, I stop and stare. Perhaps I see a badger whilst I’m driving, or a deer across the field that I’m walking across.

I also enjoy watching programmes on the TV about animals. You know the kind, David Attenborough narrating the exploits of something truly remarkable happening deep in the ocean, or in a far away place that I’m unlikely to visit.

That’s the extent of my curiosity. I’m interested, but don’t ever make animals the focus of my hobbies or free time.

All that being said, I love having animals around me in the house.

A few years ago we found ourselves in possession of a couple of kittens. To this day I’m not entirely sure exactly how they ended up with us, but end up with us they did.

Cats have an approach to life which I often admire. They are curious about everything, until they’re not, then they’re profoundly indifferent about everything.

They wander in, look around, eat, sleep, purr, sleep some more, destroy some furniture, chase something which does not exist, go outside for anything from a few seconds to a few days, then finally return and settle down for a proper sleep to get over all the excitement.

Despite the fact that I’m the provider of their shelter and food, I’m a bit-part in their lives. I’m the extra in the film that you don’t even notice. I’m something which exists at the periphery of their existence.

However, their presence is felt greatly, and their absence more so.

Even though I’m not particularly important to them, their proximity changes the nature of their surroundings. Their arrival in a room makes us all turn our heads. Their curled up, sleeping bodies create some kind of calm as we fawn over their extraordinary shapes and contortions.

All this is to say that the animals in my life have a deep, yet mostly undefined and unacknowledged impact. Simply by being, they alter the space and the time we have in that space for the better. They are wonderful additions to our lives, but we rarely stop to notice this alteration explicitly.

There is a cat asleep next to me as I write this. It’s basically doing nothing of interest, but it’s doing things of great interest to my state of mind, and sense of wellbeing.