Why does my heart feel so bad?
Special Needs Pets (last night, Channel 4) was a tough one for me. My heart breaks every time I see a pigeon with a bad foot. I almost seize up with admiration when I see a guide dog at work. The sight of a dead fox, or rabbit, or squirrel, or bird, by the side of the road, is enough to haunt me for the rest of the journey, as I imagine its last seconds of unfettered happiness before coming up against the impatience of humankind. Why would I willingly subject myself to an hour-long documentary about pets with disabilities?Well, I'm glad I did, as it was as much about the selflessness of certain animal lovers ("pet owners" does not really cover it) as it was about the resilience of animals. It being Channel 4, I feared two things: the freakshow approach that seems to bedevil even their worthwhile medical documentaries, and the sniggering presentation style that, again, infects even programmes with something sensible or sociological to say. Fortunately, Lawrence Turnbull, who made the film, swerved both pitfalls. He did not come to mock the - ha ha - rabbit in a wheelchair, or the - tee hee - Jack Russell who kept falling over, or - guffaw! - the parrot with sexual problems. Nor did he seek to make laughing stocks of the humans. Yes, he held the camera long enough to catch one or two of them crying - the money shot for any documentary - about their stricken pets (the wobbly pig, the fat cat), but in the main, unless you already think people who love their animals are in some way emotionally confused, the programme didn't seek to enforce that unkind view.
There was, I have to say, a hint of unecessary stereotyping, when the narration felt the need to tell us that Sue (above), the "owner" of Jack Russell Katie, had never been married. So what? The implication was: can't get on with humans, loves her dog. And yet, she loved her disabled mum Doris, too, and had clearly devoted much of her life to looking after both. But hey, as if to prove that not all pet lovers are social misfits, they cut to a city type, with a lovely family in "upmarket Putney" (their words), who nobly massaged his incontinent cat over the toilet and fitted him with a nappy for nighttime. You see? Even people with spouses and kids can love pets!In the main though, Turnbull left the mockery to our fine TV critics. Lucy Mangan in today's Guardian, although seemingly sympathetic to the plight of the animals, signed off with this pearl of wisdom: "It was a charming and impressively uncynical film ... which left you in no doubt either as to the love that exists between man and beast, nor the dangers of letting that love shade into the selfishness of keeping alive an animal whose quality of life has long since declined." The dangers? I saw no selfishness in this film. Clearly, the lethal injection was always hovering like the syringe of Damocles for some of the animals, not least the pot-bellied pig, for whom no diagnosis seemed forthcoming, but going to great lengths to improve the quality of your animal's life after or during a decline strikes me as unselfish in the extreme.
These were devoted and patient people. (Most of them were older than Lucy Mangan, which may be why their attitudes differ. The young can be so ruthless.) Robert Hanks in the Independent took the opportunity to make this sneery gag: "Later, she took Ethel [the rabbit] along to Jeanette, an animal chiropractor. (What next? A fish osteopath? Cat pilates?)" What the fuck is so strange about an animal chiropractor? Animals have skeletons. The Telegraph previewer wrote, "It's impossible not to believe that these people are rather misguided." Clearly, I respectfully disagree.
But then, my heart is in pieces.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 11:10 AM
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I didn't actually watch the programme, but as a tedious Guardian-reading vegetarian I found the advert to be quite patronising and cruel - it's good if as you say it didn't go for the "sniggering", "freakshow" style of presentation, but the advert certainly implied that's what you were getting. A dog that can't walk having wheels attached to it might look a bit daft, but if it allows it to have a decent quality of life, why not?
"What the fuck is so strange about an animal chiropractor? Animals have skeletons." This made me laugh.
I love the Mangan. It is quite extreme to get your rabbit some wheels. And it does look funny because you don't see rabbits on wheels every day and because they 'lop along' funny at the best of times. Your Herring comes out with things far more offensive than the Mangan. I hope you bop him on the head with your Grauniad to keep him in check.
Anna
I loved it. My girlfriend was in tears.
I didn't once think that these people were selfish. There was no prolonging of agony. A few of the pet-owners actually said that as their pets were not suffering it would be cruel to put them down. A dog with no sense of balance isn't in pain, he just finds life harder. So the solution is to make life easier for it, not to kill it.
I thought it was admirable that there are people out there who are willing to go that extra mile for the non-human members of their family.
And yes there was something funny about the bunny wheeling about, but only because at the heart of it was something positive.
Three weeks ago I had the misfortune of seeing a cat get run over outside my house as I was coming home at 5am. I had to get it out of the road and it died in my arms. After being told by Wandsworth Council that they would come and dispose of the "debris" we eventually drove it to upmarket Putney RSPCA where they were lovely giving us notices to put up and put through doors (at 6am Sunday morning)
Sadly he wasn't chipped so his owner wasn't found.
You see, I am now almost in tears thinking about the cat that died in your arms, Ians. I once witnessed a cat being hit by a van, whose driver either didn't notice (it was dark) or didn't care, and kept on going. We parked in front of the cat and diverted traffic away from its inert form, while keeping it warm and talking to it. I searched, in vain, for its owners, by knocking on doors, one of whom lent us a towel to put over the poor cat, who was alive but unable to move. We didn't want to move him, for fear of doing any damage.
Then a "cat lady" (she had turned her house into a cat shelter) from up the road turned up, and within minutes had confidently picked the cat up and put it in a basket, alerting her regular vet that we were on the way. We drove to the vet's, left the cat with him. He seemed confident he could fix it.
We found the owner, who had been out at the time, and the vet saved the cat. (He needed some bones setting, and his jaw wiring up, but aside from that, he had just been in shock.)
It was a happy ending to a distressing episode. It's great to see people rally round in a time of crisis though. It's all to easy to mock "cat ladies" like the one we met that night. Her house was full of cats. I expect some thought her mad. But she didn't act mad that night: she was firm and calm and confident and practical.
I once saved a wild hedgehog's life using only TLC and some catfood.
On a similar subject, did you read Kathryn Flett's description of How Mad Are You in the Observer?
I thought it stank.
It was a show along the same lines as this one - and avoided the various pitfalls of modern documentary. Moving stuff. I've got Special Needs Pets to watch tonight.
Also - if you're hankering for Apprentice style twats to mock, get yourself over to iPlayer for The Last Millionaire. Compulsive stuff and almost as good as Alan Sugar's moronathon.
Hi
I'd seen this programme advertised a few days ago and made the decision not to watch it, for fear of getting terribly upset. Any time I watch sad animal things, it reminds me of witnessing my own dog / cat / horse being put to sleep over the last couple of years - heartbreaking.
I'm a real sap when it comes to stuff like this and actually find myself getting more affected by seeing animal cruelty than I do human. Not sure what that says about me!
A couple of years ago, my wife and I set off on holiday in the car and within five minutes of leaving home had hit a pigeon and a sparrow in two separate incidents (poor sparrow stuck in the front grille). It made for a very glum 4 hour drive.
Doug
I'm going to watch this tonight on 4OD and I can guarantee I will cry!
There's absolutely nothing wrong with prolonging the life of a disabled or ill animal, as long as they are not suffering.
I was also quite disgusted by Lucy Mangans snide closing comment in her review.
One of our cats has been missing for nearly two weeks now. No sign as to what's happened to him, but I think I'd rather know, good (catnapped) compared to bad (dead) as it has been quite upsetting to think of him on his own somewhere.
I don't think he's coming back.
Now you've got my heart breaking again, Pest. All cat "owners" go through this. It's the downside of having an independent pet. One of the saddest sights is a Lost Cat notice on a lamppost (or Lost Dog, obviously, but these are rarer). You see them a lot in any city. I bet you were quick to run some up. I know people who were all set to adopt a small cat that kept coming into their garden, with no collar on, and didn't seem to go home, and then they took it to the vet's to have it scanned and it was actually chipped, and was returned to its "owners", who lived some streets away - you have to assume this cat was simply lost. If yours is chipped, you have to hope for similarly sensible neighbours. I feel for you. A cat we once had went walkabout for a number of nights - and turned up as if nothing had happened - but each day was torture.
Once again, I find I've missed a programme because the trailers gave a distorted impression of its tone.
PS: love the word verification - sitin
The huge number of lost cat posters in my neighbourhood is astounding. There seems to be a new one each week taped to trees and lamp-posts, many of them written by children, all of them make me feel sad. I constantly keep my eyes open for cats that match descriptions. I know I couldn't bear it if either of my cats disappeared.
On a lighter not, but big cat related - have you seen this Andrew http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8-kde5pcsYk
Well harden your heart Andrew, I may do a post about our cats one of these days. Hopefully it will be light n shade. For instance, I have a good (true) story about a cat that went missing, was buried and then 'came to life' again as well. However, it took him 10 days to rise again.
I have a picture of all four of our cats together, which I took on impulse on probably the last night that Sparky came home, I guess. If I post on this subject I'll put it up. It will make a change from my usual inane drivel.
I do like the way cat people support one another. Probably the only really personal thing I have ever blogged about was the death of one of our cats in 2006. It really helped to share. Other blog are far more revealing and personal than mine ever has been, protected and emboldened, I guess, by the anonymity of the blogger, a luxury I don't have. Sometimes, it's good to share with strangers, if they're like-minded ones.
I'm having puppy next door issues of my own so I am sensitive about the issue of sad pets. But at least the people on this programme sound like caring individuals. Too caring some might say. I'm not sure my neighbours would go to any lengths to make their pet happy.
How different people are in their thoughts and opinions. What would Gaunty think? We'll never know, alas. No one here but us woolly liberals, sigh....
Couldn't agree with you more Andrew.
I suppose an chiropractor who claims to treat animals is no more ludicrous than a chiropractor who claims to treat humans.
My cat Ju Ju disappeared about eight years ago and my then-housemate and are were distraught. She had gone for about a week and we had made posters and put them up - and then one morning I came out of my room to find a huge note from my housemate (who had to go to work much earlier than me) saying "SHE CAME HOME!" in huge letters. He came down for breakfast to find her sitting in the back garden. We found out later that she'd been living with some over-generous old ladies down the road who'd been feeding her. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried with happiness when I ran down the stairs and saw her shouting away in the hall.
She's actually gone through a few of her nine lives since then - she's an all-white cat and although we always, as instructed by the vet, put sunscreen on her delicate ear-tips, she was a rescue cat and enough damage had been done that she developed skin cancer on her ears, which had to be removed. She made a full recovery from the operation, though, and now my husband and I can't imagine her without her round "bear ears". She looks hilarious (to the extent that once, when she was sitting in our front window, my husband saw a couple walk by, point at her and clearly say "what is THAT?") and very, very cute.
There are always people who don't understand why pet owners get so upset when their pets disappear or become sick. But thankfully, there are always others who know that there's nothing weird about caring about an animal.
Since we are talking about rescuing lost pets, many years ago I was walking home along the canal during a freezing night. The canal was frozen over and a dog had fell through the ice and was struggling to get out. I made the decision to try and get it out and crawled across the ice on my belly, grabbed its collar and heaved it out(it was a pretty big dog). The dog scrabbled out and promptly turned round and bit me. I fell back cracked the ice and spent the next five minutes trying not to drown. I always wondered if someone somewhere let their sopping wet and freezing dog back in wondering where it had been.
My previous cat's death had quite a profound effect on me.
I was in bed ill with man flu and Polly our 4 year old cat was racing around the house. After she had finished she jumped on the bed to be with me.
A minute later she suffered some kind of seizure and died. I had to call my wife home from work and I had to get out of bed to dig a grave for her.
Took me a long time to recover from that!
Watched it last night. Though the Jack Russell stuff was lovely I was genuinely disturbed by the lady with the demon cockatiel. That animal should've been killed because...
a.) it was ruining its owners life by being criminally insane and
b.) it looked like the spawn of satan and
c.) it put me off my dinner.
Also, the rabbit depressed me. You could see despair in its eyes. If it had opposable thumbs it would have offed itself ages ago, wheelie-walkie frame or not.
I'll let the rest of them live.
We kept our cat Felix despite the fact she sneezed huge gobs of sputum all over the place every half hour. She was a happy, sneezy kitty.
i get like this about animals, sentimental, anthropomorphism? i dunno. but i think it reflects well on a society who have such care for other beings. i don't think the animals care as such, but it is good for society to be so empathetic. as for people getting along better with animals - people can be "fu*king wanker*" as someone once said.
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