Pets - why do we love them?

I have a very good friend who has just sadly lost a treasured family pet after nineteen years of love and affection. I haven't yet managed to have a chat with her, but I know she will be devastated.

This lovely  little cat was a gentle creature which always, when I went there, cuddled up to me and gave me attention. Possibly she could sense I was a complete sucker for cats, I don't know, but she never failed to appear and say hello.

The bond we form with our animals is a very special thing. I have four cats and I will be inconsolable when I lose one of them for whatever reason. In the past, I had two other cats and lived near a busy road. Despite the fact that I was well aware of the risks and high likelihood of at least one of them getting run over and killed, I cried buckets when (both) of them did.

Why is it that us Brits have this anthropomorphic attitude towards animals? They don't have it in mainland Europe, by and large, where animals are only kept if they are useful for food or manual labour.  There are a few pets, and then mostly in the cities, but not many. In some parts of Europe they see animals that they cannot eat or make to work - and that includes dogs and cats - as a pest, and put down poison.

I don't have a single female friend who doesn't go 'Ahhh' when confronted by a small kitten, a puppy, a baby rabbit, a field full of woolley lambs, a pony or a bunch of piglets. Most men try to maintain a masculine indifference, but even they usually melt eventually. The French, Germans, Greeks and Italians would reach for the recipe book, but we reach for Pets at Home's phone number. 

And doesn't it cost us? You can't walk through the door of the vets without spending about fifty quid, and a large bag of Iams cat food costs £45 (admittedly that does last my four moggies about a month, but its just a load of crunchy biscuits, for goodness sake!). We buy them cradles and hammocks to go next to the radiator, toys to stop them getting bored which they promptly push under the sofa so you end up moving the whole room around to find the thing, and treats for being good. Mine get their own Christmas stocking. We must be complete idiots, and those lovely little faces sure know how to manipulate us!

I think that one of the reasons I have always loved my cats is that despite their independent natures, they give love unconditionally back. They don't care what you have done, the fact that you look like shit in the morning, that you have put on weight or just yelled at them for puking a hairball on the new carpet. They don't sulk or keep harking back to past disagreements or problems. They never have to have the last word. They just love you. Sometimes it's cupboard love, but most often they just love you for who you are and for looking after them. Instinctively, they know. And that appeals to something very deep in our psyche.