Prophet Muhammad's love of cats transformed a Muslim cat hater to a cat lover

Qais Hussain's mother had an irrational fear of cats. She suffered from ailurophobia. Her son, Qais Hussain, in complete contrast, is a confirmed ailurophile; a cat lover. He has written a very interesting article for The Guardian. During the coronavirus lockdowns he wanted to adopt a kitten like many other people in the UK. As he lives with his mother it was impossible to introduce a kitten into the household.

Muslims with cat at mosque. Photo in public domain. Not all Muslims are this kind towards cats however.

He believes that her irrational fear of cats may have started when she watched a scary video about a cat in her childhood. She remembers seeing a black cat with green eyes jumping into a man's mouth and suffocating him. He also says that his mother actually hates all animals believing that "Cats are Satan incarnate, who use their cuteness and their adorability to bewitch and do the devil's work."

It seems to me that his mother had also been indoctrinated by many stories of mediaeval Europe when black cats were the familiars of witches and persecuted for hundreds of years. During that black era of humankind's relationship with animals, the black cat was seen as the devil incarnate, which is exactly what his mother believed.

He was desperate to adopt a cat and had the idea of reminding his mother of the stories of the Prophet Muhammad's love of domestic cats. There are many hadiths about how domestic cats and indeed stray cats should be treated by Muslims. Hadiths are believed to be a record of the words, actions of the Prophet Muhammad. They are reports of what Muhammad said and did. And therefore, they carry great weight.

IS DESEXING A CAT HARAM?

Once Qais Hussain's mother had been reminded of hadiths it flicked a switch in her brain it seems to me. She fully accepted cats and embraced their company. Her change in attitude allowed him to adopt a kitten who she adores. They named him Milo and she treats Milo as her fifth child.

IS IT HARAM TO SELL CATS?

Initially she was fearful and unsure around him but gradually got to know him. One day Qais returned from college to see Milo sitting on her lap while she watched TV. She now looks after him and in his words "she runs down the stairs to kiss him in the morning."

It's a good story. I'm not sure why his mother didn't already know the stories of the Prophet Muhammad and his love of cats but that's neither here nor there. She now loves them which is the right attitude!

I just hope that now she can learn to love other animals as well. As a postscript, Qais admits that Muslims treat dogs unfairly. Dogs are treated incredibly unfairly as they are regarded as unclean. Cats are regarded as clean. This is speciesism and I would hope that the senior clerics in the Muslim faith clear up this false anomaly.

Does Boris Johnson like Larry the Cat or any cat?

On this page there is a picture of Larry the Cat on Boris Johnson's desk at Number 10 Downing Street. He has a slightly strained smile. That's the first clue as to whether he likes cats. Secondly, nobody has tried to answer the question as to whether he likes or hates cats. And thirdly we know that he has adopted a dog. I suspect that his wife is the prime motivator in that adoption. He could have adopted a cat and if he had it would have been a full-time indoor cat living in his apartment above number 11 Downing Street. This is quite a big apartment so it wouldn't have been that bad a life.

Larry the Cat and Johnson in his office. Photo: Unkown No 10 adviser I suspect.

Perhaps the key point in answering the question is this: if he did like cats, we would all know about it. Somebody would have stated that on the Internet by now. But everything to do with Johnson and animals on the Internet is about Johnson and his dog; no mention of cats whatsoever.

CLICK FOR PAGES ON CAT CELEBRITIES

I'm going to have to guess but I think I can guess quite accurately. My distinct impression is that Boris Johnson is ambivalent about cats. He neither like them or dislikes them. I think that he has a sensitivity towards animals which would predispose him to liking all animals including cats.

On a straight choice between living with a dog or a cat he would choose the former. There is also the usual background issue which is that men normally favour dogs and women normally favour cats. You have to throw that well-known factor into the pot when deciding about Boris Johnson's attitude towards felines.

When he was at the Foreign Office he had to contend with Palmerston. Palmerston was the office cat at the Foreign Office although he's been retired because of stress partly brought on because of being persecuted by Larry! The Foreign Office is just adjacent to number 10 Downing Street. I wonder how Boris Johnson got on with Palmerston? I don't expect that he saw him that often because it is an enormous building.

Catasauqua - a fictional female Manx cat invented by Mark Twain in a bedtime story

In his book Letters from the Earth, Mark Twain has a section titled A Cat-Tale. It starts as follows:

"A Cat-Tale: My little girls -- Susy, aged eight, and Clara, six -- often require me to help them go to sleep, nights, by telling them original tales. They think my tales are better than paregoric, and quicker. While I talk, they make comments and ask questions, and we have a pretty good time. I thought maybe other little people might like to try one of my narcotics -- so I offer this one. -- M.T. ONCE there was a noble big cat, whose Christian name was Catasauqua --because she lived in that region -- but she did not have any surname, because she was a short-tailed cat -- being a Manx -- and did not need one. It is very just and becoming in a long-tailed cat to have a surname, but it would be very ostentatious, and even dishonorable, in a Manx. Well, Catasauqua had a beautiful family of catlings; and they were of different colors, to harmonize with their characters. Cattaraugus, the eldest, was white, and he had high impulses and a pure heart; Catiline, the youngest, was black, and he had a self-seeking nature, his motives were nearly always base, he was truculent and insincere. He was vain and foolish, and often said he would rather be what he was, and live like a bandit, yet have none above him, than be a cat-'o-nine-tails and eat with the King. He hated his harmless and unoffending little catercousins, and frequently drove them from his presence with imprecations, and at times even resorted to violence."

Mark Twain was an ailurophile - a cat lover par excellence. Photo in public domain.

It is a bedtime story to help get his daughters to sleep. The story provides us with a nice look at his writing style and his love of cats comes through. He really did love cats. He is listed in Dr. Desmond Morris' book Cat World as a cat owner and an American humorist and author. His real name was Samuel Longhorne Clemens (1835-1910). He was devoted to his cats and could not imagine life without them. Perhaps it is fair to describe his relationship with domestic cats as codependent. He also wrote:

"A house without a cat, a well-fed, well-petted, and properly revered cat, may be a perfect house, perhaps, but how can it prove its title?"

He gave his cats exotic names such as Apollinaris, Zoromaster, Blatherskite and Sour Mash. He explained why: "names given them, not in an unfriendly spirit, but merely to practise the children in large and difficult styles of pronunciation, it was a very happy idea-I mean, for the children."

Ailurophobia means a fear of cats

Ailurophobia has different degrees of severity. Some people simply can't be in the same room as a cat while others can tolerate them but can't touch them. Others might have a specific cat fear such as jumping up onto their lap. These are phobic reactions. Superstitions about cats particularly black cats still exist even though we are hundreds of years beyond that era in humankind's history, the Middle Ages, when cats were persecuted and they were believed to be the familiars of witches. Go to Africa and you will see a lot of cat superstitions.

Love Island lads are terrified of a cat! Screenshot from the TV program.

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) suffered from extreme ailurophobia. Julius Caesar also feared cats as did Henry III and Napoleon Bonaparte. He became frantic in the presence of a cat. One night he was heard screaming with a sword in his hand. He was in a state of acute panic as a cat was hiding behind a tapestry.

This sort of acute, intense ailurophobia is rare. It may start as a childhood trauma. One simple reason might be that a young child grabbed a cat roughly and inappropriately and the cat struck back biting and scratching leaving the child traumatised for life suffering from an intense fear of domestic cats. A traumatic memory can evolve into full-blown ailurophobia.

There is an old wives tales about domestic cats suffocating babies. They have of course been entirely disproved but they are persistent and no doubt some people believe them. The mother who believes this may have a form of ailurophobia as a consequence.

Apparently, studies have revealed that women are more likely to suffer from ailurophobia than men. Dr Desmond Morris the renowned zoology and author says that some experts believe that there may be a sexual element to women having a fear of cats. Cats are sometimes seen as a symbol of sexuality. Perhaps these women have suppressed their sexuality.

The way to cure ailurophobia is to gradually desensitise the person concerned. You introduce the person to the domestic cat step-by-step. At first something remotely connected to a cat is presented to the person. This may be a picture of a kitten or a plush cat toy. From there you can build up to putting a kitten in a cage or carrier and the carrier is placed in the same room as the person. You then gradually move the kitten in the carrier closer to the person and in this way step-by-step you desensitise the person until she can hold a cat without fear. It may take several months. The most intense forms of ailurophobia can be cured this way.

We don't know how many people suffering from ailurophobia seek treatment like this. Many will suffer all their lives believing that there is no cure. There is a cure and there is a reason for it. The reason is irrational because there is no rational reason to fear domestic cats except that you might be scratched or bitten :)  !

An ailurophile is someone who loves cats.

What is ailurophilia?

Ailurophilia is the love of cats. A person who loves cats is an ailurophile. Authors are predisposed to being ailurophiles. Many famous people have loved and love cats. Many celebrated figures were and are dedicated to felines. I myself am an ailurophile. However, I like all animals more or less equally. It has to be equally otherwise I would be criticised for speciesism.

Portrait of Shelley, by Alfred Clint (1829). 

Source: Wikipedia.

I can't produce a complete list of famous ailurophiles so I'll select some authors initially. Here they are:

Kingsley Amis, Emily Brontë, Lord Byron, Raymond Chandler, John Cocteau, Colette, Charles Dickens, Alexander Dumas, Ernest Hemingway, and Frank, Aldous Huxley, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, HG Wells.

Here are 10 poets who were or are ailurophiles:

Matthew Arnold, Cecil Day-Lewis, William Butler Yeats, William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, John Keats and TS Eliot.

Here are half a dozen artists who were or are ailurophiles:

Edward Lear, Leonardo da Vinci, Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol.

Here are some heads of state and cultural leaders who were or are ailurophiles:

US Pres Jimmy Carter, King Charles I, Sir Winston Churchill, US Pres Bill Clinton, US Pres Calvin Coolidge, King Edward VII, US Pres Gerald Ford, Pope Gregory I, US Pres John F. Kennedy, US Pres Abraham Lincoln, US president Ronald Reagan, US Pres Theodore Roosevelt and Prime Minister Harold Wilson and lastly Queen Victoria.

Here's are some composers and musicians who were or are ailurophiles:

Alexander Borodin, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Chopin, Ravel.

A philosopher who was a cat lover: Jeremy Bentham.

Some scientists who were ailurophiles:

Erasmus Darwin, Albert Einstein, Thomas Huxley and Isaac Newton.

Humanitarians who were ailurophiles:

Florence Nightingale and Albert Schweitzer.

Sportsmen and women who are ailurophiles: Frank Bruno, Sally Gunnell and O.J. Simpson.

Stage and screen stars who were or are ailurophiles:

Fred Astaire, Tallulah Bankhead, Bridget Bardot, Kim Basinger, Warren Beatty, Doris Day, Melanie Griffith, Charles Lawton, Janet Leigh, James Mason, Robert De Niro, Beryl Reid, Edward G Robinson, Elizabeth Taylor and Franco Zeffirelli.