Waiting for our badges . . .

We're waiting for our badges . . . Chloe and I greet the post each morning with heightened expectation. But badges, or, to be precise, ID tags, take time to make. They will come . . . and, when they do, Chloe and I will be ready!

Why do we want these tags? Let me explain.

It was Susan's idea. Quite soon after Chloe's arrival, Susan sent me a website address.

"This might interest you," she wrote.

The website was for a national charity called 'Pets As Therapy'. Pets as therapy? It was an idea that I knew, but a charity that I hadn't heard of.

Intrigued, I investigated further . . .

'Pets as Therapy,' I read 'is a national charity founded in 1983. It is unique in that it provides therapeutic visits to hospitals, hospices, nursing and care homes, special needs schools and a variety of other venues by volunteers with their own friendly, temperament tested and vaccinated dogs and cats.

Today there are currently over 4,500 active P.A.T. dogs and 108 P.A.T. cats at work in the UK. Every week these calm, friendly P.A.T. cats and dogs give more than 130,000 people, both young and old, the pleasure and chance to cuddle and talk to them. The bedsides that are visited each year number a staggering 6.75million.'

I turned to look at Chloe . . . Chloe looked at me . . . I recalled her sociable nature, her love of playing with children, her sunny temperament.

"Chloe," I told her firmly, "you're going to be a P.A.T. cat!"

But Chloe, who believes in living in the moment, was far more concerned with the prospects for her supper.

Understandably, these things take time, we have had to curb our impatience and wait. No cat or dog is even considered until it is nine-months old.

Finally, she was ready. She walked well on the lead, enjoyed visiting friends, and was very happy travelling in the car. Just before Christmas she had reached the stage where she was ready to be assessed by a P.A.T. examiner.

For obvious reasons, this assessment cannot take place in the animal's own home. I invited the examiner to accompany Chloe and me to lunch at our local pub. Where better, I thought, than the bustling activity of a London pub for a cat to pass her suitability test?

With hindsight, it might have been better had it not been Christmas! But even the most socially-responsible cat can be forgiven for trying, surreptitiously, to dismantle the Christmas decorations!

The examiner generously overlooked this understandable lapse in Chloe's otherwise exemplary behaviour.

Yes . . . you've guessed, she passed! When the form had been completed, all the questions answered and all the boxes ticked, it turned out that she'd passed with flying colours.

I was overwhelmed with relief and pride. Chloe, totally unfazed by her achievement, was beginning to think wistfully of the chicken lunch awaiting her at home.

A few days later, in celebration of this notable success, our good friend, Shelagh, designed and presented Chloe with a splendid certificate!

So now you know why we're waiting for our badges. Each P.A.T. cat, and each owner, needs an ID Badge. Without these badges we would be denied access to the hospitals, care-homes, or hospices. Ours, we are told, are under way.

And if you think that you're going to be spared every detail of the expeditions that Chloe is dreaming about . . . well, you can think again!

I can't wait to tell you all about them . . . nor can Chloe, who is now officially: P.A.T. Cat No: 109.

Watch this space . . . !

A question for today

May I share a question?

It's always helpful to share questions, it enables them to grow. Not only do they grow, they often produce bigger and better questions. Which can only be good.

I heard two very interesting interviews this week and, in a beautiful instance of synchronicity, each of those being interviewed stressed the value of questioning.

The first recommended keeping a journal in which, each morning, you wrote down a question to focus on during the day.

The second, Gary Douglas, warned of the dangers of answers. Answers, he maintained, discouraged you from searching further.

Both implied that an answer was a dead-end, a full-stop. Questions, on the other hand, lit up the mind, excited the interest and encouraged further searching.

Why is it, I wondered afterwards, that modern eduction seems to concentrate on ticking boxes and answering questions? How did we foster the prevailing belief that the ability to supply an answer, even if this consists of no more than ticking a box, provides a student with the tools needed to move forward into adult life? What if (heretical thought for a school governor!) students were given the answers and asked to provide the questions?

I played with this idea. Say that the answer provided on one occasion was the word 'spade'. How many hidden layers of subtlety linger around that word? Christopher Fry summed it up perfectly when he wrote, 'a spade is never as merely a spade as the name spade would imply'.

Again, if the answer given was 'a rose', this could produce some fascinating questions. Might it even re-ignite Shakespeare's wisdom and enable the students to discover for themselves that it isn't the name that provides the beauty, structure, and scent?

This line of conjecture was getting interesting. I decided to stretch the net further and turned my thoughts to games for the mind. Surely this would be a certain place to find unquestioned answers?

But, no. As one who is addicted to her daily Su Doku, I know that the whole time the game remains a question it is both challenging and entertaining. However, I also know that the moment every square is filled, the moment it is a complete answer . . . well, the only value remaining to that scrap of scribbled newspaper is as a contribution to the recycling bag.

Could Maths and Science be the stumbling block to this revolution in thinking? Not, it seems, if we take basic arithmetic.

One and one makes two, we say . . . but two what? No two things are identical, and once you have two you have created a relationship, it isn't simply two. The combined talents, wisdom and efforts of two far outweigh that of simply doubling the talents, wisdom and effort of one. And if, instead of accepting the answer as 'two' you question what you've achieved and add a further one, you have a far more complex situation than that of merely creating three. Look beyond the simple answer 'three' and see that you now have a triangle. You have inter-connectedness on both sides of each component, you have a circling flow of communication. And communication of any kind is always a question, never an answer.

A final thought to take into consideration is the fact that answers aren't always as clear-cut and obvious as they seem.

To the question: 'What are thirty thousand pieces of carved stone added to fifty thousand pieces of carved stone?', the answer isn't necessarily 'eighty thousand pieces of carved stone'.

It could be, 'St Paul's Cathedral'.

Oh dear, this will never do. I seem to be concluding with the very thing I've been avoiding: an answer!

Would you be so kind as to take over from here and see where this line of questioning takes you . . . ?

Thank you!