This is my house as well as your house.

A riff on othering, solidarity and belonging.

Since our dog arrived in the house 6 years ago, our cat who lived here for long before, has been mostly terrorised by the dog.

Each time she was spotted just trying to be in the house she has been chased, threatened and generally oppressed by the dog.

I mean we often felt the dog would kill the cat if she could catch her.

The cat spent much time outside the house for several years.

The dog could never seem to accept that the cat, who looks different and definitely smells different, belonged here too.

For several years the dog was never allowed downstairs where we sleep and was kept upstairs where we live.

This allowed the cat, some respite from the aggression of the dog, to at least find some solace and belonging during the night.

The dog would whine and protest about not being able to come down and join us.

A while back as an experiment, we allowed the dog to come down to where we sleep.

There have been multiple dog and cat stand offs amongst the duvets.

Meanwhile the cat began to hang out again in the living space upstairs, while the dog slept downstairs, blissfully unaware that the cat was back in the house.

The cat would lie in the sun in the kitchen and most mornings would sit by the dogs bowl, often drinking her water.

As if to say, ‘I can drink your water, I can sleep in your sun spot, this is my house as well as your house.’

And then of late, strange things have happened, we would find the dog and the cat sitting nearer to each other.

The dog seemed more able to recognise the rights and freedom of the cat to be here, to belong in this house.

And then recently things have drastically changed, they are becoming more relaxed and accepting of each other and their individual and collective freedoms to exist and belong here.

Sitting and sleeping side by side yesterday in what was an impossibility for years.

Imagine if we humans could persevere to sit with our differences for long enough, if we could create space and compassion to dissolve our perceptions of otherness and cultivate solidarity and shared belonging.

#solidarity #community #regeneration