Carol Wilborn, a self-proclaimed cat therapist known for her seemingly perplexing skills in deciphering cats' emotional lives, died on December 23 at her home in Manhattan. She was 84 years old.
Her death was confirmed by her sister, Gail Mutrax.
Wilborn's patients shredded items such as couches, toilet paper and their girlfriends. They soiled the rugs and beds. They galloped over sleeping humans in the early morning hours. They hissed at babies and dogs and other cats. They chewed on the wires. They sulked in closets and went on hunger strikes.
They suffered from childhood trauma, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, jealousy, and just plain anger. And the self-taught Wilborn, who studied (human) psychology and majored in education in college, seems particularly attuned to the inner workings of their furry minds. It was. A minor celebrity in Manhattan, she was often referred to as the Freud in Kitten, or the mother of feline psychiatry.
She often pointed out that cats hate change. Even if you put a new cover on the sofa, it may return to its original state. Cats are selfish. Unlike dogs, which strive to please their owners, cats strive to please themselves. Ruining the cliché of happy cats, happy (human) lives.
“Cats behave badly when they try to communicate,” she told the Los Angeles Daily News in 1990. I'm saying, “Please help me.'' ”
Ms. Wilborn developed her specialty over more than half a century, starting in 1973 with veterinarian Paul Rowan when she founded The Cat Practice, billed as Manhattan's first hospital exclusively for cats. She has stated that she is the first feline therapist in this country, but it is not known whether this claim is disputed.
She is the author of six books, including “Cats on the Couch” (first published in 1982), which provides case studies to help cat lovers better understand their furry friends. She treated patients as far away as Australia and Türkiye (by phone) and made house calls as far away as Maui.
“Cats have feelings,” she said. “They can be happy, sad or frustrated. I understand human emotions, so I understand cat emotions.”
She estimated that she had treated about 13,000 cats and claimed a success rate of 75 to 80 percent. For example, Snoopy didn't like to be held, and would play rough with it and run around in circles if he got too excited. Sobriety, a 3-year-old tabby, scratched his own skin. Minina bit all the visitors and had to be locked up during the dinner party. What is Mr. Wilborn's diagnosis? Lone cat syndrome. What is the treatment? Another cat, preferably a kitten. Lots of attention, but not the kitten. And for Sobriety, it's Valium.
She once treated a cat who had accidentally put it in the dryer with Reiki energy healing.
She noted that Wilborn's go-to regimen also included New Age and classical music, recordings of whale songs, and plenty of treats such as catnip (a natural antidepressant). She also suggested subtle behavioral modifications by humans, such as feeding a cat to a new lover. She often encouraged humans to call their pets and leave uplifting messages in the age of landlines and answering machines. Her services were not cheap. Home visits in Manhattan remained at $400.
“I wish I lived somewhere other than a big city like New York,” she told the New York Times in 2004. “I would be on food stamps.”
Carol Cecil Engel was born in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens on March 19, 1940, one of four children of Harriet (Greenwald) and taxi driver Gustave Engel. There were no cats in the Queens apartment, but the family did have a canary named Petey. Carol graduated from Bayside High School, attended Albany State University's School of Education, and then transferred to New York University, where she studied psychology and earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Education in 1964.
Her first cat was a Siamese named Oliver, who she adopted through an ad in the Village Voice. She worked as a substitute teacher and a Playboy bunny until opening “The Cat Practice” with Dr. Rowan, whom she later married.
“She was very attuned to the animals and their emotional states,” Dr. Rowan said in an interview. “It was very unusual at the time.” As a result, their business was successful.
Her previous marriage to photographer David Wilborn ended in divorce, as did her marriage to Dr. Rowan. In addition to her sister, Ms. Mutrax, she is survived by her Siamese dog, Orion 2;
Wilborn also loves dogs and has treated dogs, but she had never owned a dog herself. But she had clear opinions about anti-cats. In her experience, many people who claim to be allergic to cats simply don't like cats.
“Cats are free spirits, never submissive,” she wrote in “The Inner Cat” (1978). “People who derive satisfaction from giving orders that others must follow may be intimidated by cats. It is difficult to assert your sense of power over cats.”
