The world is full of misery ... and very cute kittens

Rym Ghazal explains why people want to get away from misery by checking out cute animals

Sheikh Zayed loved animals and set up several conservation campaigns and funds, including the nature reserve at Sir Bani Yas. Courtesy Al Itihad

Every morning, without fail, as a big chunk of the world leaves for work, an old man takes his cat for a nice stroll on a leash in Dubai.

We all know him by sight, and know his cat is called Tom, a white and orange Arabian Mau rescued from the streets five years ago.

Actually, I don’t think anyone ever bothered asking what the old man’s name is, but we know his cat’s name.

“No one gave me a second look, or even ever said hello, until Tom came into my life,” said the man, who prefers to be called Abu Tom. “Tom changed my life.”

Often the world makes fun of people with pets, but never underestimate the power of animals. It is no coincidence that the top stories online are often about animals, especially cat videos.

I tested it myself, and yes, a story about my two rescued cats, Tiny and Tuna, was more widely read than anything else I’ve ever written.

If that wasn’t enough, a photo taken of Tiny sitting next to my friend’s baby, went viral among my friends. Baby girl was crying until Tiny sat next to her. The two sat looking at each other for half an hour, both waiting for the other to blink.

There have been numerous studies on the health benefits of having pets, from reducing stress to increasing empathy.

Several years ago sources close to this country’s founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed, told me that he always had animal programmes playing on his TV set. He loved animals and set up several conservation campaigns and funds, including the nature reserve at Sir Bani Yas.

I find it sad that too many Arabs I meet today hate animals and are unkind to them, especially when for Muslims, kindness is actually part of their religion and their heritage.

Looking back at their ancestors, there was always a beloved pet – be it a cat, dog, horse, camel, falcon or even reptiles. I found an Arabic poem dedicated to a desert lizard who used to accompany the poet on his travels.

Prophet Mohammed had a cat and one of his famous companions, Abu Hurairah. His name translates as “father of the kitten” because he carried his pet cat with him and fed the strays around the mosque.

Understanding the power of animals, BuzzFeed, popular on the web for its quizzes and its funny shareable lists, tapped into this animal mania by releasing a Tinder-like app dedicated to cute huggable pets.

The “Cute or Not” app allows you to upload pics of your pets, and let the world judge if it’s cute (swipe right on the pink cat like icon) or not (swipe left on a grey sleepy looking cat icon).

I wouldn’t subject my kitties to such judgments, but many of my friends have already downloaded this app and are getting involved.

They say it is addictive and they have taken up the challenge to come up with better photos and storylines regarding their pet entries. One had taken a photo of her white Turkish Angora cat wearing a red Tarboush (fez) and says it is getting a great response.

If you don’t have an iPhone, fear not, there is a whole “cute or not” area of the BuzzFeed website devoted to this, and other websites have also been doing this for a while.

Animal Planet on OSN is currently showing a series called Too Cute about various baby animals. It may sound silly, but “cuteness” is good business. Just see how well Hello Kitty has been doing for decades.

With all the misery in the world, is it any wonder that people want to get away from it all by checking out cute animals?

On Twitter: @Arabianmau