Category: Animal House
The following was sent to me in an e-mail by a friend:
the below description of the attached photo and its caption are provided by a sighted friend of mine:
The photo is of a yellow labrador that appears to be standing on top of a small picnic table in a snowy yard. Just under the dog's chin and slightly in front of it is a lovely orange tabby cat with a small patch of white on its chest.
The dog's head is pointing right at the top of the kitty's head and kitty is looking straight ahead at the camera with one paw raised as if ready to lead.
The wording at the side of the photo is as follows:
Cashew, my 14 year old yellow Lab, is blind and deaf. Her best friend is Libby, 7, her seeing-eye cat. Libby steers Cashew away from obstacles and leads her to her food. Every night she sleeps next to her. The only time they're apart is when we take Cashew out for a walk. Without this cat, we know Cashew would be lost and very, very lonely indeed. It's amazing but
true: This is one animal who knows what needs to be done and does it day in and day out for her friend.
It's signed by Terry Burns of Middleburg, Pennsylvania.
Really a very sweet story and the photo is quite nice as well.
This is very interesting. I never heard of an animal assisting another before, like the way this cat helped the dog out.
cool. i'd really love a guide kitty myself
Aw, that's so sweet. I've heard of animals helping out others, and I think it's incredible.
I like this. I have always said I would want to be one of the first to have a seeing eye kitty, or a lion, leopard, lynx, panther or, yes, even jaguar, smile. Of course, with one of those less domesticated cats there would be no problem getting people out of my way on the road, lol.
That is very nice and concerning.
Jaguar, you have a point there. LOL. Can you imagine the people scattering out of your way as you walk through a crowd with a lion or tiger?
Awww, that is really cute.
Aww! Sweet! Hey, let's be the first to petition for guide cats! I'm in!
I'm all for that, smile. Guess those felines would be too independent, but when it happens I'm there, smile.
Cute story, Becky. My vet in Iowa housed cats that were up for adoption. Awhile back, they had a cat named Squirt, who was blind, and another cat named Stretch took on the responsibility of being Squirt's guide. No one trained Stretch to do that, he just did it on his own. It was very cute.
This type of story is why I will never understand how people can hate cats and say they are all mean and selfish and aloof. It is simply not true.
Meow! roflmao. Hell yeah I love cats!
If they can train ponies as guides for humans, why not cats? I wouldn't get one myself, seeing as I don't like them much.
awwwwww!
Pretty neat!
Troy
They could probably train a cat for guiding, as far as inteligence goes. But their size doesn't make it practical. *Grin*
Mew.
LOL Bob, I thought you were going to stay out of this.
mew, hiss, scratch, woof, bow wow!
Bob
Having a cat as a guide would be really interesting, but whoever said their size would not be practical, is making sense. It just wouldn't work.
Plus, I really can't imagine a cat allowing itself to be trained for that. I love cats but also recognize their shortcomings, and they are just too stubborn and I just can't see one guiding a person using a harness. But they are great pets, and as the original article I posted here states, occasionally you hear of a cat taking on helping another animal.
I've heard similar stories. It's pretty cool. *smile*
why would there size not be practical when giding a person
I was wondering the same thing. Anyway, I love stories like this! When my mom was little, my Grandma used to have a German shephurd named King. He actually used to go to the store across the street from where Grandma used to live and shop for her. It's not that she couldn't go herself, but everyone loved King and King loved everyone. She'd just put a note explaining to the grocer what she wanted and some money in a bag and tie it around King's neck and off he'd go. It wasn't alot of things, of course, but it was fun and everyone knew him and would say hi to him, ask what he wanted, just as if he were a man. But what really brought this to mind is that she also had this cat named Mitchko. He was, in her words, a bum. Basically, he was a cat from the street. Anyway, he'd go out at night, and whenever Grandma would tell King to go look for him, out he'd go and bring him back. When Mitchko would come back, he'd be all dirty. King would lick him until he was clean. lol He wouldn't even let him go eat until he was groomed. Those two were the best of friends.
IT always amazes me how animals sense things, I was reading Woman's world the other day and in it there was a Cat who just had a litter of kittens, who took on a baby duck because she was abandoned by her real mom.
Another cute story was about a Dog who had puppies a while ago and a newborn kitten whose mom died, went to this dog and the dog's maternal instincts took over and she started lactating again and took care of the kitten.
I love these stories because they show you that animals arent stupid they are very smart. A baby monkey was abandoned by his mom and he needed love so a Bird became this monkey's mom it was so cute. This goes to show you that you can't judge a book by it's cover and it's truly miraculous when this stuff happens otherwise they would be dead most likely.
What a smart kitty.
i wonder if a guide bear would be practicle. hehehe. can you imagine that? you'd clear a town!
So are predatory or prey species more likely to do this? I mean, would a cow or a horse or a goat do this? Are predators by definition smarter? I know birds are significantly more intelligent than most give credit, with a few exceptions being chickens, doves, and eagles.
So does predator equal more likely than prey to do this?
After all dolphins, who have rescued humans, (at least in anecdote) are one of the ocean's largest predators. Beluga whales, a prey species, doesn't appear to do this.
As much as I love cats, I don't think I trust them enough. Plus my cat plays tricks on me. Let's see. If the cat got scared, I'd have to learn to climb trees, jump from great heights, and if we get stuck somewhere, I'm not sharing a mouse for dinner with him.
Lou
I've never met a cat I'd trust myself to in that way, and let's be honest here. If I ever encountered a cat big enough to actually serve as a guide I'd probably run from it. Usually those are te sort you hear about on the news attacking people when they feel threatened. I just watched an episode of Rescue 911 on YouTube where a zookeeper was attacked by a leopard. So no, as much as I love cats I don't think they have the right personality for guidework. They're too flighty for one thing, at least that's what I've always noticed. I sure wouldn't trust Max with that responsibility as much as I love him.
Aw! That's so sweet! What a good sweet kitty.