Seeking comfort rt
Many resort to pets for companionship
Keeping cats has changed who I am. I used to care only about myself. But after learning to look after childlike cats and caring about their happiness, I have become a better teacher.”
Wu Bao, architecture teacher at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing who lives alone in Beijing’s Wangjing area with four cats
Afew months ago I bumped into a friend in a Japanese restaurant. He ordered a pot of sake and invited me to join him. I told him I was going to get a cat, and his jolly mood instantly turned somber.
“My dog died a week ago,” he said numbly as he held a cup of sake in his hand.
He recounted how he had got the huskie, how much he loved it, how it had waited until he had returned from a business trip before it finally died, how he had taken it to a veterinary clinic in a vain attempt to save its life, and how on a rainy night he had dug furiously to dig a grave for his departed friend.
I could tell he was trying to hold back tears; so was I.
Three years ago, Dandan, a five-yearold dog my parents raised, was knocked over and killed by a car. When they told me about how she died, my mother, seldom one to shed tears in front of me, cried. My father tried to cover his sorrow by walking away. In the absence of me and my brother, Dandan had been a most loyal companion for them, someone who brought much joy and comfort to their lives.
“He was a family member,” my friend said of his dog. “I had always wanted a dog since middle school. Finally, more than 10 years ago, my father gave it to me as a reward for my gaining admission to a good university.
“He ate even better than me, all imported dog food, and I walked him twice a day if I was not away on business,” he said, drinking another cup of sake. “My son loved him, and he loved my son, too.” I tried to console him. “You gave him the best you could give. He was a happy dog, and a lucky one, too.” He perked up. These kinds of stories of humans grieving for animals they have formed close bonds with go back thousands of years. In fact a history published in May last year reckoned that humans have kept animals as pets for 27,000 years ago. It is likely that the genesis of this was human ancestors capturing young wolves from the group they kept around and tamed them to become companions.
Cats were not tamed until about 3,600 years ago, first by ancient Egyptians, which may explain why cats are not as easy to control as dogs.
I did not heed my friend’s off-the-cuff suggestion to forget about getting a cat and have now become a fully fledged cat mother. I have been surprised to discover just how many people around me have pets.
When they talk about their pets, each story sounds as touching and amazing as that of Hachiko, a famed dog in Tokyo in the 1920s whose loyalty endured even after his beloved master went to the grave.
To Hachiko, Professor Hidesaburo Ueno was an indispensable companion, which is exactly what pets are now to many people in many places.
Forbes quotes data from the National Bureau of Statistics saying that China has 27.4 million dogs, following the United States and Brazil. China is said to have about 58 million cats, the second largest after the US.
Goumin.com, China’s leading online social network for pet owners, says 79.5 percent of owners are in their 20s and 30s, and that more than 58 percent are women. China’s pet economy has grown at an annual rate of 30 percent in recent years.
According to some people, children growing up with pets are more willing to share and to communicate with others. Keeping pets provides Chinese born in the era of the one-child policy with a reflection of their relationships with their parents, lovers and children. For many old people whose children are not around, pets can become the biggest comfort of their life.
Charlotte Qiu, 32, an only child, moved out of her parents’ home last year to live on her own. She has already been unhappy with her job, she says, moreover, outside work her life seemed to
consist of little more than an endless succession of blind dates.
“I seemed to have no interest in anything, and I was on the verge of depression.”
She then decided to get a cat. When it arrived things began to pick up for her. But soon the downsides of this constant companion became obvious.
For a start, the cat seemed to be immune to toilet training and would constantly leave its mess in various parts of Qiu’s apartment.
That led to bouts of her yelling at the cat, which in turn seemed unable to play the usual role of the docile feline that will do anything as long as it is pampered.
The more Qiu did to keep the cat out of the kitchen or bedroom, the more eagerly it tried to get in. Sometimes, she says, the cat seemed to do its business outside the toilet out of spite.
“Then I realized that perhaps I was being mean to her. She was doing her best to make me think about my relationships with my parents and friends.”
Wu Jian, 27, of Changsha, Hunan province, who lives with his girlfriend in Beijing, says they adopted a ginger cat three months ago.
“We wanted to make ourselves feel responsible for taking care of a living creature, so we looked for a slightly intelligent mammal that could be with us. A dog was the first choice, but we weren’t sure we would have the time to walk it every day. So we opted for the cat.”
Sometimes the two, both from one-child families, would quarrel over whether they should beat the cat if it bit them or after it did its business in the apartment, or whether Wu should shout at it either in anger or when he was having fun with it.
“If we could tackle these disputes in a positive way, we could do the same when we had other similar problems and get along better,” Wu says.
Wu’s girlfriend even created a Weibo account to record interesting moments of their daily lives from the perspective of the cat.
Many Weibo accounts have become popular based on regular postings about lovable animals, including cats, dogs, pandas and parrots.
“Perhaps our cat could be a bit hit on the internet, too,” she says.
Wu says that when he feels depressed, the cat can cheer him up.
“Of course goofy dogs offer a better cure. I can’t help smiling when I see them in the street.”
Another to have found feline solace is a cartoonist who goes under the name Wu Bao and who teaches architecture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Wu, in her 30s, lives alone in the city’s Wangjing area, not far from where she works.
Walking into her house, the visi- tor is confronted by stacks of cat cans on one side and four kitten bowls and a fountain flowing with water.
She has four big cats, three named after her favorite Spanish soccer players, Lionel Messi, Juan Mata and Andres Iniesta.
“Before I got my first cat Leo I had never laughed loudly at home on my own, or talked to myself,” she says. “I was kind of boring.”
She soon found herself often run- ning after Leo, the two jumping to the bed together and Wu laughing out loudly.
Since she often had to go away on business, worried that Leo would feel lonely at home, she got another cat, Juan, and the two cats quickly bonded. She then bought the other two cats in quick succession.
She has got to know the character of each cat, she says, and insists that local hybrid cats like Leo are the best pet cat because they, with stronger self-consciousness, can interact with humans.
When the weather is good, Wu says, she wakes up in bed surrounded by four lovely cats, “feeling like a king”.
“Keeping cats has changed who I am. I used to care only about myself. But after learning to look after childlike cats and caring about their happiness, I have become a better teacher.”
However, keeping cats is very much a minority interest in China. By 2014, 2 percent of families in urban areas had them, while 7 percent had dogs, the National Bureau of Statistics says.
Dogs have become good companions for older people as more young people head to big cities to seek work opportunities.
When Jiang Xiaobin moved to Beijing to work for a newspaper four years ago her parents in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, adopted a poodle named Xiaohei (little black), she says.
”When I was little they didn’t allow me to keep pets, but this time it was they who decided they wanted one,” she says.
Returning home after being away, Jiang’s father makes a beeline for the attic, where the dog stays during the day, she says.
“My parents treat him like a son, kind of like a replacement for me. My father is his first master, my mother the second, and I am just his sister.”
In fact the dog has become an important topic when her parents speak to her on the phone, and many of their daily activities have begun to revolve around the dog.
So that it can play on the roof they erected a ladder, and when Jiang’s father bought a new car it meant he could take the dog on long trips, something they now often do. Jiang’s mother learned how to do online shopping last year and she has bought clothes and toys for the dog. They even take the dog to a pet shop so that it can meet other dogs.
“My parents have become good friends with a lot of other dog owners,” Jiang says. “One owns a hardware shop and helped us repair the broken tap in our bathroom.”
Walking the dog every day helps her parents stay healthy, Jiang says.
Qiao Jingwen, 30, of Beijing, says that when she feels depressed at home, her two dogs run to her, rubbing themselves against her legs, and holding them makes her feel better.
Ever since she adopted the two dogs she has made her business trips shorter, ensuring that she is away for no longer than two days.
“I cannot stand leaving them for too long. All I did was give them a roof over their heads, but they have given me much, much more.”
Zheng Richang, a professor of psychology at Beijing Normal University, has done research on children and pets and found that those who keep them tend to look after the weak, are less likely to feel lonely, and are more likely to become interested in or love animals. Keeping pets can better teach children responsibility and independence, he says.
“Many families have only one child, which easily makes children self-centered and poor at communicating with others. But keeping pets nurtures patience, empathy and a sense of responsibility.”
Wu Jian says: “Maybe every person from a one-child family should keep a cat to cure the cancer of egotism.”
In countries like Germany and South Korea, keeping pets is prescribed to help cure depression and addictions, says Tao Ran, director of the medical addiction division of the General Hospital of Beijing Military Region.