Cats, Relationships, Stuff.

Cats are glorious, cats are a marvel. Forget about dog being mans best friend, bring in cats to fill the position! I know that opinions vary, but you can easily be won over to loving cats, and incorporating them in your life, where is it is no where near as easy to try and add, say, a dog to an already jam packed lifestyle. Who would feed it, and walk it? Who would play games with it? Suddenly all your free time after work, all that relaxation tome that was yours and yours alone, its gone. With a cat, you are spared all those finicky problems that go with dogs, all the demands of attention, all of the lack of independence. Heck, sometimes you don't even see them for days at a time; talk about wonderfully independent creatures! So this one goes out to all you cat people out there. All you people who can think of nothing better than cuddling up to a cute, fuzzy, purring ball of self contented self centered love.

Now, I myself used to be a dog person. I grew up with dogs, I had a puppy of my own, and I loved all 5 of our dogs to bits; to this day I still believe that red cloud kelpy cross is the most amazing lovable energetic breed of dog out there, and is specifically designed to be everyone's best friend. And they're loyal to one person, and one person alone; that gets them the most brownie points in my books. But my relationship with dogs as a collective started going downhill a few years ago now, when I came home one day to find my gorgeous puppy was no more; still, I see that as one of the saddest days of my life. I moved on, life went on, I moved to Perth a couple of years later, and was convinced by a friend to take one of her kittens. A more entertaining ball of fun I have never since experienced, and that kitten, with her various antics, including suspending herself off my balcony railing, kept me so highly amused that I could not help but get another one a year later, just to double the laughs.

Recently my marriage has been going through a very nasty rock filled stage that reminds me of the rapids you get on the Blackwood river in autumn or spring; beautiful to look at, a mincer to be within. And both my husband and I have been distraught and upset 90% of the last month. And each time that I have retreated to a different part of the house, or someone else's house for that matter, there are cats. My kitten crawls in with me each night these days, and when I went to someone else's place to give us a little time apart, a random cat made its way in and made itself at home. And at home here, whenever he has been upset, our original cat, now coming up for two years old, curls up on his lap, or gets into bed with him. She isn't a very hug loving cat, and is rather independent, but she has spent 90% of the last month on my husband's lap.

So, no matter how things turn out, I must say I will always be grateful to those cats who have been by us the last month, and who we have nurtured in their lives for the last nearly two years. They are selfish independent creatures most of the time, but when you need a non biased friend, who has no opinion and no favoritism, I suggest to you a cat every time. They won't tell you what they think of the situation, they wont give you advice. They will simply love you unconditionally provided you feed them. And what more could anyone ask of a good friend? So Maus, Sootica, I thank you both. The last few months, and the last one in particular, have been hard both of your owners. And you two cats, black little panthers that you are, have been the best friends anyone could have asked for.

The Right Thing

Living, thats easy. People will tell you its hard, but they really have no clue if thats their theory. No, living is easy, its LIFE thats the hard part. Creating it, nuturing it, sustaining it.

Think about it for a second.
Out of 9 planets in our solar system, only one has managed to produce and successfully sustain life. Only our planet, from the whole of the galaxy, is known to have intelligent life forms. Now lets focus on those life forms. Is life easy to create? Some would say yes, but lets take a closer look. Women only succeed in getting pregnancy 30% of the time, and about 20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. Of those that carry through, theres a 30% chance the baby will have deformations, or birth defects, or mental problems, many of which impede the ability for the child to live a successful normal life.

So understandably the human race has evolved to treasure life and do anything within its powers to preserve it. But some of us would have to agree that in recent years, our medical scientists and our doctors have taken this desire to preserve life too far. In this I refer to many examples of people who are comatose, or vegetative, have no quality of life, and would be better off simply being allowed to let go, yet doctors, and our laws, world wide, are keeping them in pain and misery. A key example of the cruelty of our medical system is this poor family, torn apart over their child and sibling, being kept alive against his wishes, simply because we as a culture fear death and hence refuse to allow him the final dignity, and his final wish www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25498807-421,00

Yet another example of the inhumanity of our society is the case of 13 year old USA boy, Daniel Hauser, who has declined chemotherapy treatment for leukemia, and is currently on the run from authorities in the USA because a court has ordered that he see a doctor and receive treatment. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25515726-401,00.html Despite displaying his wished of receiving natural remedic treatments, and claiming belief that chemotherapy would kill him, the courts remain adament that Daniel will be found, and will receive treatment. What happens if Daniel is to die before they find him? His mother, whom is aiding him stay out of sight in America, will most likely be imprisoned. Are we so wrapped up in the preservation of life as a society that we would send a dying boy on the run and make him live in exhile rather than accept his choice and allow it to him?Are we as a society willing to disregard personal decission in order to make life continue? edition.cnn.com/2009/US/05/19/minnesota.forced.chemo/index Now, if as this version of events is telling us, Mr Hauser really is severely lacking in awareness of his own situation, which, personally I find vastly problematic to believe, then it is understandable that there is considerable concern, and that the American Courts would want Mr Hauser to come back, and at least learn all the details about his condition. But it will continue to remain wrong that they have ordered him back for treatment, with no mention of simply allowing him to learn all he needs to know and making his own choice. In essence, the American Courts have taken this teenagers right to personal choice away from him.

On the note of lack of personal choice, lets also spare a thought for those people who are dying, or comatose, or vegetative, or any variation of those problems, and the fact that if they do not want to remain in the state they are in, they don't really have a choice at all. My husband and I had an extremely ill son, who we opted to bring home for his own sake, and ours, and also due to what we saw as his choice. James had no working pituitary gland, and hence no thyroid hormone to keep him awake and alert, and yet he managed to remove his central IV line from his body, then had to be sedated to prevent him doing this again. I feel greatful that we had the choice with our son to do for him what was right, but I know many parents whos children are worse off than our son was, who have no choice; they have to watch their children live out their lives, trapped in their own bodies, with no ability to help them at all. And if they do help them, as some have done and others will do, then they are charged for murder. So all in all, a no win situation.

I believe, along with many others who have all been in situations that have shown them the extent of disrepair our medical system is in, that our medical law system needs some urgent reviewing. Euthanasia laws need to be made. Doctors have to be able to realize when a patient is not going to get better, when the best thing for them is to put their life in their own hands, or if that is not possible, into those of their family. And most of all, regardless of whether the condition is treatable despite its severity, our governments and medical systems have to realize, that no matter what, the choice should ultimately be left in the hands of the person who's life they are treating. Because ultimately, personal choice should matter more in this world than maintaining life at all costs, even when there is no real life left, just a husk of a body, with a person trapped inside.