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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Annalisa Barbieri

What the love of cats taught me about myself

‘I never thought I’d kiss a cat’: Annalisa Barbieri at home with Sidney.
‘I never thought I’d kiss a cat’: Annalisa Barbieri at home with Sidney. Photograph: Dan Burn-Forti/The Observer

I never thought I’d kiss a cat. Or like them, or be in a room with them. Cats, to me, were evil and unpredictable. A classic projection, if ever I saw one, of fear manifesting as dislike. Intense fear. Intense dislike.

But then I became a mother and, as we all know, maternal love makes you do strange, selfless things occasionally. My children started asking for a cat. I said no, of course. My home was my safe place. No cats allowed. For some years they asked for a cat, on and off. Eventually, the “why we should get a cat” lists started getting toilet-roll long and I started thinking, maybe we can get a kitten. Kittens are cute. I started watching videos. Kittens were cute.

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