Pets Raise Your Love Quotient

Move over I.Q.

Make room for L.Q measured by how much you love “pets” and by how much they love you.

Since I can remember, I have been surrounded by animal companions. I refer to “pets” as this, and call us the “owned”, not the Owners.

Having grown up by a river in Western Australia, I became interested in ants and insects, butterflies, birds and juicy-fruit plants and in limestone and lagoons.

Our family had dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hermit crabs, fish, birds, silk-worms, and even a goose and a pig at certain times.

Tammy and Tina were our two amazing beautiful Chow Chow dogs, and there was Kim a brindle Great Dane cross, plus Minnie, my favourite cat.

Minnie was a stray short-haired bluish cat who was named Melinda then Minnie for short. She went from “Minnie-downstairs-cat” to “Minnie-upstairs-cat” when she trusted us enough to come into the house!

Minnie gave me great comfort, especially at times of great stress due to being in such a huge blended family, with abusive situations and some neglect, whether intended or not.

She loved me and would even try to follow me on a walk to the shops. I would have to turn around and shout at her, “No, Minnie go back home.”

I left my childhood home at age eighteen, and Minnie was left with one of my sisters and her family. Some years later I heard she had passed away from old age, and for a while I felt guilty that I hadn’t been around to make sure that she was loved in her twilight years.

As David Attenborough said to an interviewer, “I don’t love all animals, but I respect all animals.”

Animals tend to take a shine to me, and I believe that if you ever meet someone who doesn’t like children or animals, you should avoid that person.

My fondness and interest of animals contributed to my taking up a degree in the Biological Sciences at University.

At age thirty, I met my current day partner. We began sharing a rented house, and not long after, our Millennium Gift arrived.

Shandy, a beautiful furry calico and white cat, was the love of my life until 2016 when he passed away.

Even since then, he is never far away from my thoughts.

On 31 December 1999 as my partner and I returned from a New Year’s Eve outing, we saw a kitten’s face peeking out from some rocks on our front lawn. It was nearly midnight.

This kitten adopted us and we became his owned.

When he was a few months old, one afternoon, I stood looking out the back door, then looked at him.

Shandy looked up at me, with the sweetest smile on his face and a look of unconditional love, that I will never forget.

That small cat loved me, and having known or felt what it is truly like to be loved, made me open up and able to give love.

My partner and I are now looking after his mother’s eleven year old dog, a Cairn Terrier, Basil.

That dog loves my partner as much as any being could love another, and this has also encouraged me to mind what I do and to think about others and be loyal to them, as Basil is.

On 17 October 2014 I went into hospital for a while, then got well and returned to work, and on 18 October 2017, three years after my return home after hospital, a furry brownish-black cat appeared.

She was right in the middle of our driveway when I turned into it, after work. It was uncanny, because she appeared right after the third Anniversary of my major surgery, and about one year after Shandy cat had departed.

It was, for me, a sign from Heaven that I have allies and all was well.

We had seen this cat years ago in our street, but she had waited until Shandy had shuffled off his mortal coil (in February 2016) and then “waited” until a memorable day in a memorable year, to find and look after us.

We gave our black cat visitor milk, and sometimes even gave her fish. She is grateful, and I like her soft fur and I am super glad that she came to remind me about Shandy and that I still have a lot of love to give.

She and Basil get on together well.

Our animal companions are like that:

They love us unconditionally and teach us to be aware of our choices, that we can choose to truly care for others, or to treat Life as a “throw-away” thing.

They raise our Love Quotient.

Shandy has been the “glue” that has kept my partner and I together.

Animals know when we are feeling ill or worried or angry, and they let us know that they know.

I have tried to talk telepathically to Shandy and I am well aware that it is entirely possible to talk telepathically to animals, and has been done.

I have always said to my friends that if only Shandy and I were on Earth, the last two survivors on Earth, that in a heart-beat I would give our last morsel of food to Shandy cat.

One person said to me, shouldn’t you eat it, so then you may have strength to find more food?

I immediately replied, “Oh no, that might not happen, there’s no question, the food would go to the cat.” And that is because our animal friends raise our love quotient and for this we are deeply grateful.