FOR
1. the house cat was just as sacred to the ancient Egyptians as brush master Salvador Dalí, Kurt Tucholsky wrote an ode to it, Frida Kahlo painted it in her self-portrait. Can all these fine minds be wrong?
2. the purring. Apart from the calming effect, the vibration activates a self-healing function in the cat’s body that is even said to affect humans.
3.instead of sniffing everyone’s crotch, the cat expresses its love – when we have finally won it – subtly, but all the more heart-warmingly.
4. she eats when she is hungry, cleans herself as independently as she does to save water and sleeps for up to sixteen hours a day. Means a minimum of maintenance for us.
5A cat has humor and patience. Otherwise she would have run away long ago (assuming she could).
AGAINST
1. all the hours spent on cat videos.
2. the animal unerringly heads for the cashmere sweater for a power nap and pees on the carpet rather than in the litter tray.
3. As soon as it sees the apartment as a safe place, a cat’s hunting instinct commands it to massacre mice in the living room in a way that would rival a splatter movie.
4. it is not the human who trains the cat, but the other way round – although the former doesn’t even realize it. Or who doesn’t acknowledge the loud meowing with a cuddle or a full bowl of food? They know how attached we are to them – and they exploit this shamelessly.
5. strange scent in the den, new sofa, New Year’s Eve fireworks – the diva reacts with a moderately severe behavioral disorder. And pees on the carpet again out of confusion.
