Hello Anita, as a scientist involved in the field of improvement of drugs in a number of diseases and an avid cat lover I am interested in how pets can improve the lives of people that are going through tough treatments. It has been shown, for example, that stroking cats can lower the blood pressure of many people. However, the animals have to be happy and healthy so that both human and animal comfort and care for each other. Therefore it is important to have people like you who visit cats at home to groom them, and very important that you can go and help the owner if their cat develops behaviour problems. As that can cause enormous amount of stress. I would like to hear your views about certain aspects of both your behaviourist and groomer hat on.
Firstly, though, how did you get involved with first grooming and then the whole difficult field of cat behaviourist? At first you are a musician?
Yes, I was a singer/songwriter for most of my working life. But a personal tragedy led me to re-think things. I didn’t sing for 2 years and felt really lost so I started to think about what else made me happy. It was a no brainer really: cats ;-). I first set up a cat sitting business, and then I studied the field of grooming cats, which led to studying the behaviour of them. It’s all grown very organically and the need is huge for all three areas. I do find that all three go together quite nicely.