Book Review

Pleasurable Kingdom

by

Jonathan Balcombe

There is a chapter in Pleasurable Kingdom entitled Transcendent Pleasures which has a section headed Mad with joy. Here we learn about the delight of chimpanzees, released from their winter quarters at Arnham zoo, and that of other chimps given shelter from rain, about the raptures felt by mules brought to the surface after years working in a coal mine, about the joy of dolphins escaping from purse seine nets, of dogs anticipating walks and cattle let into fields after long winters confined in byres. When elephants meet again after a period of absence they can create pandemonium.

Jonathan Balcombe has created a magnificent hymn celebrating the pleasures experienced by animals, from their delight in play, to the enjoyment they find in food, touch, uninhibited sex and love, to the happiness they derive when exhibiting their skills and intelligence and in appreciating those of others. For too long, those of us who thought of such things at all, have dwelt on the harshness of nature and have not allowed the sweet notes to enter our consciousness.

As we listen to the glorious music the images presented before us in rapid succession seem to contain no shadow, until we are finally shown the long, dark shadow thrown by cruel man. We have to look very closely to see any other darkness, but it is there. We see it when we realise that the pleasures described in Mad with joy would not exist were it not for hardship and loss. The apparent bliss of crows standing in the smoke stream of a chimney or spreading their wings over discarded cigarette butts in a railway terminus, may not be because of intoxication, but simply the relief experienced after removal of the fleas which had been driving the birds to distraction. I suspect that a life of uninterrupted pleasure would be no more satisfying for an animal than it would be for a human.

It seems begrudging to award this book only four stars instead of five. I enjoyed it immensely, but these shadowless, too-numerous animals hopping in and out of my consciousness failed to touch my heart in the way that, say, Doris Lessing’s cats did.

Ice Storm

During the last week of March there was an ice storm such as I have never seen before. For hours sheets of snow were tossed about by a strong wind. From 6 pm cars were stranded on Glenshane Pass a few miles from here and it was 2 am before all the drivers and passengers were rescued and brought to local halls where they spent the night. A photograph taken from the air the following day showed a thin dark line with a single lane of tiny parked cars crossing the white television screen.

Many people lost their electricity supply that evening. Poles were blown down and overhead cables broke under the weight of frozen snow. As I sat beside the fire with the two cats the lights flickered every few seconds, but we were lucky. The power stayed on.

Banjo and Sherpa react differently when they are forced to stay indoors. That night Banjo was restless and repeatedly went to the door asking for it to be opened. When it was, and he was hit by a blast of icy wind he quickly retreated. Sherpa withdrew, as she did during the worst of the winter snow. She showed no interest in food or lying on a warm lap, but curled up on a chair beside the radiator.

Spring Scents

Spring Scents

In the book, 'Pleasurable Kingdom,' Jonathan Balcombe writes, 'They (animals) live - I suspect - mainly in the present. I wonder about this when animals can have such a powerful sense of smell, and when I know that a smell can drop me instantly into a specific past.The scent of lilac recreates our walk to primary school. Along one stretch the stone wall of a garden towered above us. Hanging over the wall was a lilac bush which in spring diffused a scent from heaven into the air around it. We could have walked along the path that adults chose, but we often preferred to climb over rocks at the base of the wall.Near the school was a canteen from whose tall chimney descended smells unlike those of home cooking. Recently I detected one of those smells when I passed the factory of a local butcher.The smell of a fox transports me to my grandmother's farm where we spent idyllic summer days in childhood. We were walking along a hedge that separated two fields when our cousin stopped. We noticed a strong distinctive smell and she told us a fox had passed that way.Some years ago we visited a folk park and walked around a variety of traditional cottages. From the garden of one a smell arose that was exactly like that in the garden behind my grandmother's farmhouse. It brought me to a sudden stop.The smells of primroses, bluebells, wild garlic, flowering currant, to name a few, connect me to the places where I saw them as a child.I contrast the memory I have of past weather. People say that this winter was the coldest for fifty years, but I have no memory of a harsh winter about fifty years ago.In the photograph Sherpa has found an interesting smell. I wonder if it awakened memories for her.

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Spring Scents

In the book, 'Pleasurable Kingdom,' Jonathan Balcombe writes, 'They (animals) live - I suspect - mainly in the present. I wonder about this when animals can have such a powerful sense of smell, and when I know that a smell can drop me instantly into a specific past.

The scent of lilac recreates our walk to primary school. Along one stretch the stone wall of a garden towered above us. Hanging over the wall was a lilac bush which in spring diffused a scent from heaven into the air around it. We could have walked along the path that adults chose, but we often preferred to climb over rocks at the base of the wall.

Near the school was a canteen from whose tall chimney descended smells unlike those of home cooking. Recently I detected one of those smells when I passed the factory of a local butcher.

The smell of a fox transports me to my grandmother's farm where we spent idyllic summer days in childhood. We were walking along a hedge that separated two fields when our cousin stopped. We noticed a strong distinctive smell and she told us a fox had passed that way.

Some years ago we visited a folk park and walked around a variety of traditional cottages. From the garden of one a smell arose that was exactly like that in the garden behind my grandmother's farmhouse. It brought me to a sudden stop.

The smells of primroses, bluebells, wild garlic, flowering currant, to name a few, connect me to the places where I saw them as a child.

I contrast the memory I have of past weather. People say that this winter was the coldest for fifty years, but I have no memory of a harsh winter about fifty years ago.

In the photograph Sherpa has found an interesting smell. I wonder if it awakened memories for her.

Caress

Mysterious Sherpa unusually has been spending the last four nights outside. On the first three of those nights Banjo was also out, but last night he disappeared upstairs at bed time. When I let Sherpa in this morning Banjo was standing near the door. I saw her rub her cheek against his as she walked past, and was surprised. Since both cats were neutered over five years ago, the most we have come to expect from them is mutual tolerance.

When they were kittens they often cuddled up together. I can remember one occasion when John's brother visited with his dog. After they had departed we looked for our two tiny kittens, but although we searched the house, the garden and even went out to the footpath beside the road, there was no sign of either. Worried we returned to the house. I remember standing at the kitchen sink wondering what to do next, when I heard a soft scratching that seemed to come from the table behind me. Pulling out the drawer that was part of the table I found the pair running round among the cutlery. They had climbed on to a chair and found a gap between the top of the drawer and the lower surface of the table.

Purring

When I went to visit Banjo in his cage at the veterinary clinic he purred loudly. I left him there for the night and went home feeling greatly relieved. when cats purr it means they're happy doesn't it? It was only recently that I learned that cats can also purr when they are injured.

Today I started reading a book by Jonathan Balcombe called 'Pleasurable Kingdom.' In it he mentioned an hypothesis proposed by Elizabeth von Muggenthaler of the Fauna Communication Research Institute in North Carolina. She thinks it is possible that cat purring has therapeutic properties.

I looked up the paper she presented at the 142nd annual Acoustical Society of America, American Institute of Physics, International Conference. In humans, vibrations between 20-140 Hz are therapeutic for:

• bone growth/ fracture healing
• pain relief/ swelling reduction
• wound healing
• muscle growth and repair/ tendon repair.

She says that, although it would be very difficult to carry out an investigation on cats to test whether their purring promotes healing, it is well within the bounds of possibility since they create frequencies that fall directly in the range that has been shown to be therapeutic in humans.