Last Friday my humans went off on their two wheeled noisy thing, I think they call it a bike, and my female human came back with this - amazon.co.uk/Pets-Tourettes... She said she found it in a charity shop and bought because she was worried about it falling into the “wrong hands” to be honest I couldn’t imagine anybody wanting to buy it or even swap it for a bowl of tuna! Although I did like the hamster pictures, I wouldn’t mind a hamster of my own to play with, but I don’t think my humans would agree. The first thing I don’t get about this book is that animals don’t get Tourette’s syndrome, only humans do, my female human has Tourette’s, it was a bit strange getting used to her at first and her clapping still startles me, it makes me feel paranoid, as though I’ve done something like sharpen my claws on her favourite rug or jumped onto where the humans make their food. CLAP, CLAP, I haven’t done anything; I’m just using your computer to tell the other humans that have Tourette’s syndrome about that stupid book! Well, back to my female human when she bought the book ( 50p from the Sense shop) she said to the shop human “Do you think it’s appropriate to sell this book which pokes fun at people with Tourette’s syndrome” the shop human said “I couldn’t possibly comment”, my human then said “would you sell a book that poked fun at deaf blind people?” the shop lady said “probably not”, “so it’s ok to sell a book making fun of TS but not deaf blind people?” the shop human didn’t answer, my human left feeling angry.
The next day my female human went to meet some other humans with Tourette’s syndrome and they all thought the book was awful, one human said that she should throw it away. I showed the book to some of the other cats that visit my garden in-between doing a bit of bird watching; first I asked Ginger Balls what he thought of it “What a rubbish book, maybe I might find it funny if I’ve had too much catnip!” I asked Selina, “It might be good to line my litter tray, the kitten pictures are cute though” and Kevin said “A dog might find it funny” .So there you go the cats thought the book was rubbish and the humans did too. Here’s a book that the cats like and the humans too - amazon.co.uk/Pussy-Cats-Tha... the humans laughed so hard they got stomach aches.
Back to the “Pets with Tourette’s” book, or rather Selina’s litter tray liner, those poor humans with Tourette’s get it all the time, if it isn’t people staring and whispering there’s those humans who think that it’s ok to make fun of other humans with disabilities and are allowed to go on the talking picture box thing or make books. Do cats do that? No way, we like to help those less fortunate than ourselves, I caught a bird the other day for Tripod, he isn’t very good at catching birds due to his disability, and I don’t like to see him go without. As well as other humans looking at her when she goes shopping for my food. My human has been trying to get a job, where humans go away for a while then come back again, she thinks that when people make books like “Pets with Tourette’s” it makes other humans think that all that people with TS do is swear, when in fact people with TS are really clever, nice (she’d buy me more ping-pong balls if she had a job) and would be good at doing a job. I think she’s feeling sad about not having a job, I think she might like a mouse to cheer her up. I wonder what the boss human of Tourette’s Action thinks of this book?
Love and Kisses Sasha xx
Tourette's and aging
Tourettes
Online questionnaire about how music might affect symptoms associated with Tourettes Syndrome.