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Voice of Experience

Voice of Experience: January 2025

The Partnership of Cats

Bonnie Michelle Smith

Summary

  • Science confirms the therapeutic benefits of having a cat.
  • Cats provide great partnerships at work and at home.
  • Deregulation of working cats is the key to controlling the rat population in large cities.
The Partnership of Cats
iStock.com/Liam Bell

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I have a cat. I love my cat. Sometimes, my cat loves me. Cats are indifferent creatures. You feed them chicken or tuna, and you think you own them. In reality, they own you the moment they cozy up to you while you do your work. I always know when a brief is on the right track when my cat jumps right in the middle of my paperwork.

So what is it about a 10-pound bundle of fur that makes one melt? Purring. Yes, purring is melting to the heart and actually healthy. The sound of purring from a cat’s motor is at a sound and frequency that is therapeutic.

Science suggests that the frequency of a cat’s purr actually does have healing properties. The frequency range of a cat’s purr has a range of 25-150 Hz. Studies have shown that the sound frequency of a cat’s purr really does have healing effects on blood pressure, stress, muscle growth and repair, tissue healing, pain relief, and wound healing. Cats know when you are recovering from an injury or illness and purr more loudly around you when you are recovering from injury or illness. (The Fascinating Science Behind a Cat’s Purr, El Gato Veterinary Hospital, July 31, 2023.)

Egyptians began domesticating cats before the First Dynasty over 5,000 years ago. (Carnegie Museum of Natural History.) Egyptians loved cats for their companionship and hunting prowess. Cats were seen as a link to the divine and hunted rats and rodents that spread diseases and plagues.

When I lived in New York City doing postgraduate music training, way before my time, I even thought about becoming a lawyer; there were cats everywhere. A cat in the grocery store. A cat in the cafe. A cat in the hotel. Even a cat at the theater. You felt safe when you went to a retail establishment that had a cat. I never minded buying milk and eggs where the cat had been curled up next to them. That meant no rat or rodent had been hanging out with my eggs and milk. These were working cats. Partners in crime cats.

The Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan has had a cat in residence since the 1920s. During my time in New York City, I would save my money and go to the hotel to have brunch at the Algonquin Roundtable to just hope to have a glimpse of the hotel cat. I so missed my cat from home. Sometime in the era of political correctness, the Algonquin Cat had less free reign of the hotel. Health regulations — they said. The powers that be forced the next generation of working Algonquin cats to just a few locations in the hotel, and sadly, with a radio collar.

Surprisingly, during this time of political correctness and the segregation of the NYC Cats, the rats started regrouping. The rats got bigger and bigger. The rats formed gangs and started working out. By March of 2024, CBS News reported that big rats continued to plague New York City. The regulations that removed the cats brought in the big, big rats.

Which brings us back to the health benefits of cats: they have purr motors that can heal you, and they deter rats. Even the Lilly Schoolhouse in Lilly, Georgia, has a resident cat, Miss Kitty. She is a purr motor who oversees all operations of the rural musical theater venue.

For good health, good vibes, and rat deterrents—get a cat. The health benefits outweigh the risks of you being a slave to purchasing the best chicken and tuna the purr boxes require. And you may just have a feline friend for life or for at least the next 17 years—that was how long I had my last feline friend—longer than most modern-day marriages and relationships. Not a bad partnership, indeed.

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