WTF? Department

Griffin sorting out his Yin and Yang

When I was ‘between marriages’ back in the mid-1990s I got myself a cat. The cat was Griffin. You’ve heard about him before.

At the time I was a member of the league of the walking wounded, having just come out of a tempestuous (to state the case mildly) relationship and having no desire at that moment to share domicile on a permanent basis with any wearer of panties (fortunately that jaded impulse changed). So, I got me a cat.

It was great. Grif is a good guy – even still. He’s clean and neat and testicle-less, so he doesn’t fight. He was about 6 then and is now the far side of 18, as near as I can deduce.

OK. Opening premise here. Pets are good. Griffin kept me sane and well behaved and then when the right person came along, as in Wendy, I was ready for it. So was he. He also fell in love with her from the outset.

When we did our year-and-a-half back-and-forth between here and Victoria, the one thing that galled me about the Victoria apartment complex was that pets were not welcome. Many of the residents of the place were seniors. Some were recently widowed. They were alone and often lonely. So, why no pets? No reason was ever given.

Animals pee and poop? So do people.

Animals can be destructive? More damage is done to flats by people than is ever done by pets.

Animals can be noisy? See ‘damage’ above.

The pet ban was a pity, and one that I think should have been questioned. If we were to have been there for the long haul I certainly would have questioned it, due to the lack of logic.

Now comes this. One of the communities that constitutes the interconnected urban area of the Comox Valley is the historic coal-mining village of Cumberland. Cumberland is a quaint and sometimes even enchanting place with lots of good interconnected folks and the cheapest real estate in the area.

Just recently the local press noted that the residents of a seniors complex in the village have been told to give up their pets, “or else.” The ‘or else’ part is either abandon cats and dogs that you have acquired or ‘get the hell out’ by Aug. 31.

It seems that the residents, many of them widowed women, have taken in a few feral tabbies and pups, or have acquired some from the shelter. They had been led to believe that this was OK by the overseers of the complex, the Cumberland Senior Citizens Housing Society.

Now, they have been told that former directives in terms of pets are invalid. And, if these senior folks (you’d think they’d have a few rights, but you would be wrong) to adhere to the draconian decree, they muster damn well pack their bags and hit the road.

I can only assume the good members of the Cumberland SCHS don’t have any parents or grandparents of their own or they wouldn’t be quite so fascistic about this.

Anyway, it doesn’t look good and it also flies in the face of conventional wisdom that holds that pets are remarkably good for the mental health of seniors. That is why a number of care homes in the area have resident dogs and cats.

By the way, it comes as no surprise that the board members of the Cumberland SCHS would not return calls to local newspapers. That’s because they cannot help but be seen as heartless and mean bastards.

For that is what they are, regardless of how they would like to justify this sort of abuse and emotional blackmail.