Study Says Cat Lovers Prefer Cats to Family Members

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Those of us who have a pet, be it a dog or cat, often feel that they are just a furry little family member, but a family member indeed. They are treated just as well, and in some cases, even better than people, and this has been seen many times over in families where cats are a part of the family. Die hard cat lovers have sometimes been labeled different things, such as, eccentric cat lady, crazy cat person, and other things. It’s hard to imagine an animal taking precedence over a human being, but it does happen, and there are a lot of stories out there that prove some people will put the feelings of their cats above, yes, even family members. Here’s one incidence:

A lady wrote into the Chicago Tribune, to Amy Dickinson, advice columnist, back in December of 2017. The woman explained to Dickinson that she and her mother were cat owners and cat lovers. Their cats were their family, which is all good and fine, however, the lady writing to Dickinson went on to explain that whenever her sister-in-law came to visit, she would request that the cats be put away; upstairs, or behind a gate, or somewhere away from her due to severe allergies to cats. But the woman writing in said that she wasn’t about to put her cats up for her sister-in-law on the principles that these cats were family.

The woman wrote that when her brother and sister-in-law had a baby, the first grandchild, she wouldn’t even bring the grandchild to see her or her mother due to the cats being around. The woman writing in was clearly irritated that her sister-in-law would withhold her niece from her, and her mother (grandmother to the baby), simply because they would not comply with putting the cats up during a visit. She said that the sister-in-law would not even let her brother bring the baby for a visit on his own without her.

She continued to write that by now, the sister-in-law was pregnant with a second child and they still hadn’t met the first due to the cat situation and wanted to know what she and her mother could do about this.

Amy Dickinson, also a cat lover, was a bit abrupt in explaining how she thought it was not the sister-in-law’s behavior that was out of order, but the woman writing in because she should most definitely put ta human’s feelings and needs above the cats’, especially if seeing her niece, and having her mother seeing her grandchildren was so important.

This type of story is not uncommon, and more people need to realize that as important as their pets may be to them, the feelings and needs of humans and our loved ones should always come first, if you love your family more than your cat. If you don’t, well that’s another issue.