>I also like cats.
> --------------------------------------
>
> http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/06/america/pets.php
> Prefer dogs to humans? You're not alone (or unbalanced)
> By Erica Goode Published: July 6, 2008
>
> NEW YORK: Humans are an overrated species, or so Leona Helmsley apparently
> believed.
>
> She briefly considered giving some of her real estate billions to other
> humans - indigent people, to be specific - but later changed
> her mind, leaving instead up to $8 billion in a charitable trust solely
> for the care and welfare of dogs. She favored her Maltese,
> Trouble, over her family, providing $12 million for the dog in her will, a
> lot more than she left her grandchildren.
>
> Predictably, the news of the extent of Helmsley's charitable bequest was
> greeted last week with outrage about misguided priorities
> and jokes about a wealthy woman so arrogant, imperious and ill-tempered
> that only a canine could abide her.
>
> But Helmsley, though richer and crankier than most, was hardly the first
> person to deem the companionship of dogs or other pets more
> gratifying than that of people, raising the question of how common such
> sentiments are and whether they represent a reasonable
> choice in a world of fickle and unpredictable two-legged creatures, or
> evidence of some deep-seated psychological disturbance.
>
> The field of psychotherapy has traditionally viewed those whose closest
> relationships are with animals as somehow lacking, their
> affections pathologically misplaced, their devotion a symptom of their
> inability to forge healthy connections with the humans around
> them.
>
> But in recent years, researchers have begun to take far more seriously the
> bonds between humans and animals and to evaluate those
> relationships in a more positive light.
>
> "There are whole segments of the population that prefer being in the
> company of dogs than people, and I'm not sure that's such a
> negative thing," said Joel Gavriele-Gold, a psychoanalyst in private
> practice in Manhattan and the author of "When Pets Come Between
> Partners."
>
> In a recent study, Lawrence Kurdek, a psychologist at Wright State
> University in Ohio, found that college students who had a high
> level of attachment to their dogs showed greater attachment to the pets
> than to their fathers. Their attachment to their mothers,
> siblings and best friends was just about the same as their attachment to
> their canine companions, Kurdek found.
>
> The study, reported in the April issue of the Journal of Social and
> Personal Relationships, found that the students who were most
> strongly attached to their dogs did not show high levels of anxiety or
> avoidance - characteristics that some therapists would expect
> to see in people with unusually fierce bonds to animals.
>
> The finding, Kurdek wrote, supports the idea that "people strongly
> attached to their pet dogs do not turn to pet dogs as substitutes
> for failed interactions with humans."
>
> To Gavriele-Gold, the intensity of the relationship between people and
> their pets is unsurprising.
>
> "Humans tend to be very disappointing - notice our divorce rate,"
> Gavriele-Gold said. "Dogs are not hurtful and humans are. People
> are inconsistent and dogs are fairly consistent."
>
> Still, he said, he has seen patients who, betrayed and wounded in
> childhood, have turned to a cat or dog for the uncritical support
> and love they never received.
>
> "If you grew up in an atmosphere where you were abused, you're not going
> to have a high regard for people," he said.
>
> In somecases, a pet can provide an outlet for more unpleasant traits, like
> a need to control others, a refusal to compromise or an
> inability to grant other people autonomy.
>
> Gavriele-Gold described one patient as "a total control freak" who became
> a dog trainer.
>
> "It worked out really well for him," he said. "He was able to marry a
> woman who was totally laid-back, and he had no desire to
> control her because he was able to do it with the dogs."
>
> Several experts said that from everything they had read about Helmsley,
> who died last August, her relationship with her dog may have
> fallen into the pathological category.
>
> Healthy or not, Helmsley did not go quite as far in her devotion as some
> others. She may have backed her love for Trouble with
> millions, but, perhaps because she hailed from a more staid generation,
> she never quite declared the bond exclusive.
>
> Others do. A Web site in Britain , www.marryyourpet.com, features
> testimonials from pet owners who claim, seriously or not, that
> their relationships with their dogs or cats are primary. And Marc Bekoff,
> an animal researcher in Colorado, said he was startled
> recently at a meeting when a woman kept talking about her "significant
> other."
>
> It turned out, he wrote in an e-mail message, that she was talking about a
> beagle.
> --
> Frederick Martin McNeill
> Poway, California, United States of America
> mmcneill@fuzzysys.com
> ******************************************
> "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."
> - George Orwell
> ******************************************