2024-04-18 07:39:47
Another aspect that the feline therapist takes into account is the way in which humans relate to cats. This is when they regret that many people treat them as inferior beings, who they scold and even attack. «Everybody wants a kitten as small as possible, but it is important to know that during this period they must play with other cats, and that if they start playing with their hands with them, they will later scold you when the cat continues wanting the same thing but they are older,” he adds.
A life partner
In any case, it is not the cat who goes to consult. It is Feline Therapy that speaks with the animal’s owners, something that is achieving more and more success. Trillo, in fact, started by herself and now there are a dozen people on the team. Asked why a cat can provide a person, the expert responds forcefully: “It doesn’t have to provide you with anything, that would be looking at it from the human’s egocentric point of view. The animals that are part of assisted therapy, who do good to the person, suffer a lot because they eat everything. “It suits the human very well, but the animal is left with that burden, and it is not fair to use anyone for our well-being.”
After all, Trillo understands the cat as a life partner with whom you share and cohabit without expecting anything in return. “The problem is that people do not understand them, neither their body language, nor their needs since they are babies, nor their socialization process,” adds Trillo. She and her team have registered more than 2,000 cats that they have cared for, although the figure increases to 10,000 if we take into account the free work they dedicate in animal shelters, foster homes, and the newly adopted cats so that people don’t return them.
The opportunity to have a home
They know this well since The Cat Library, in Madrid, a place at street level where you can go and stay as long as you want with the adult cats that live there until one of the visitors decides to adopt them. In total, 26 of them play hoping that someone can provide them with a better life. The idea arose a decade ago, when Eva Aznarone of the people in charge of the entity, was doing her final degree project on interior design.
«Here the idea is to interact, something circular. You come, you relax, you play with them a little, you pet them, and just like that you are helping these cats with a traumatic past to socialize and have more trust in humans. “If you decide to adopt it, that cat will leave a space for another,” he says.
A cat in La Gatoteca. — Guillermo Martínez.
It is true that, for example, you can see dogs on the street, in parks, and it is much easier to have that essential contact with the animal before taking the step to adopt one. “We empathize a lot with cats abandoned by our own neighbors, but they come from many places and situations, such as cats that have never had a home, puppies released from past litters or abandoned adults of any age but who have already lived with humans,” he says. Aznar.
The biggest problem: lack of understanding
In La Gatoteca, all of them They have a name and a history to look at if someone decides to adopt to some of these animals. According to the person responsible for the project, «living with a cat is like having a roommate, each one with their own personality and quirks. When you live with them you generate a special and very individual bond, that’s why all people say that they have the best cat in the world in their house. Aznar already lives with five cats in their daily lifeand knows that it is one of the animals that is often abandoned due to lack of understanding because “many people think it is a small dog and do not know the specific relationship that is created”, in their own terms.
Humans, in that, have a lot to say and to change: “Many times, when people see that there is a problem, we do not try to solve it and we think that it will be fixed with the passage of time, but the cat lives within four walls.” and it ends up bursting on one side or the other,” adds the person in charge of La Gatoteca. After all, Most abandonments occur due to not knowing what they are getting into the house.. For this reason, from their project they teach a five-hour course to anyone who has decided to adopt one of the cats to learn how to carry them, negotiate with them, know what they should eat and what they should not and how to distribute objects in the home to that its layout is the most appropriate for the new tenant.
A cat in La Gatoteca. — Guillermo Martínez
In these almost ten years of cat library, Aznar has seen how people are acquiring greater knowledge when adopting a cat: «They do come with more advanced ideas about what type of feed and litter they should use, and if they ask about safety issues. behavior already know the figure of the feline therapist.
And he concludes with a final message: “Let people who are thinking about adopting, or a friend who has a litter and gives you one of the babies, or who you meet on the street… Let those people dedicate a little time to know the animal you are going to live with, its needsand thus avoid all the problems that may occur.