And a glass of Chard for my cat

Pill-Popping Pets: "'He's agile,' Allan says. 'He's healthy. He's a good-looking animal.' Michelle adds, 'We love him to death.' That is why they had no choice, she says. The dog simply had to go on psychoactive drugs."

This is a great article and a fascinating topic.

Over the past five thousand and more years almost every civilization at some point experienced animals as volitional players on the human stage - and often as dear and feared gods, before whom we cowered.

I still feel the power of that past. I look to my cats in awe, treasuring them as god-like sublime perfections, and I have never doubted the reality of their passions and their sorrows and their sacred “umwelt”.

Show me the bush that they can eat when they are particularly troubled, and I will get it for them. Show me the medication that can help them deal with situations beyond their control, and I will get it for them. But I always know that their senses should not be unduly disturbed or their faculties diminished. We are interfering and, even though our motives are clean, we must do no harm.

Oops, gotta go - time to feed the Sphinx.