A Vital Partner in the Fight Against Cancer

I just came across a piece in People magazine—quoting the prestigious journal Science—claiming that cats are officially "a vital partner in the fight against cancer."
Apparently, we share the same cancer-causing mutations. This discovery complicates things.

1. My Strata vs. My Survival
I live in a Vancouver building where the no-pets bylaw is enforced like a border crossing. But this discovery changes the math: How can a Strata Council justify depriving a resident of a "vital partner" in their recovery?

I’m reminded of a general pro-tip regarding the legal optics of these things: “Prosecuting a cancer patient is the kind of file that lawyers' nightmares are made of.” Choosing to go to war with a feline co-therapist is certainly a bold PR move. I hope they’re prepared to cross-examine a whiskered defendant.

2. Upgrading the Lab Specimen
Does this mean cats are about to become more "popular" in research than mice, hamsters, or pigs?

Scientifically, the "One Medicine" approach makes sense: if we share the same mutations, we share the same solutions. However, the idea of "lab cats" sits uneasily with me. There’s a PR issue here that rodents just don’t have to deal with.

Think about it: Cats is one of the longest-running, most beloved shows on Broadway and the West End. Who has ever queued up to see a three-hour musical called Mice? Our emotional debt to cats is high, and the scientific community might find that trading "lab rats" for feline counterparts is a very difficult pill for the public to swallow

Tash, Luc and I, 1998

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