My child is a therian.

Doctor Jones, I’m very happy you agreed to see me. I’m going crazy.

It’s not a problem, I had an opening. Have you been feeling anxious again? Tell me what’s going on.

Its not me this time, it’s my daughter, Bella. She believes she’s not human. She identifies with a cat. A cat! She crawls around on all fours, purring and meowing. She wants to eat her food on a matt in a bowl. If she’s not happy, she hisses. Her dad thinks she needs a mental institution. When he said that in front of her, she hissed at him and scratched him, believe me, he was not happy! She’s even joined this online group of other “therians”, and she’s online a lot.

Do you believe it may be just a phase, like last year when she would only eat pb&j sandwiches?

At first, I did think that, but it’s been going on for a month now. She wears cat ears at school. Her teacher told me that many 5^th graders have been doing that. They eat lunch together and play together on the playground. I just don’t know what to do, it seems to be getting worse, she printed out a litter box picture, and some cat toys and laid it on my desk. I brought it back to her room, and told her that smart cats learned to use the potty. She dropped it, thankfully, can you imagine? I can’t!

What are your biggest concerns?

Doc, have you not heard me? My precious, beautiful daughter is not mine anymore, she came from a litter of cats. She swears that I ripped her away from her other kitten siblings, and now she’s sad and lonely. We were on our way to school, and she saw a cat, and she sighed and said sissy. I about choked on my coffee.

And?

My concern is that she won’t snap out of it, and the other freaks will further convince her that she is actually a cat.

Is calling them freaks helpful?

A little. I mean, come on. In my era, we never had a club of animals. One time my brother was pretending he was a dog, and bit the Avon lady, but mama whipped him and he changed back quickly.

Did she strike him because he was pretending?

No! She was alright with us pretending. She wasn’t alright with biting. After that, he pretended to be a cowboy for a long time, and she never said a word.

Why do you think that is?

I don’t know! I guess because cowboys were real.

Aren’t cats real?

Yes, they are real. My brother didn’t denounce all his humanity to play a cowboy. He just ran around pretend shooting and roping cattle. He never hurt anyone. Bella hurt her dad. That’s what concerns me.

Do you think she felt threatened?

From her dad? I don’t think so, but it’s kind of difficult to talk to her right now. Can you talk to her?

I’m not a child psychologist, but my colleague next door is. I’ll make a call and get you in.

Great news, I explained the situation to her, and she can see her tomorrow after school.

Thank goodness, thanks for your help.

Bella, I’m Dr. Smith, and I want to talk to you about being a cat.

Meow.

Maybe you can do me a favor, and draw what you look like as a cat.

You are a beautiful cat, black and orange are such pretty colors together. I understand you are being who you want to be, and that’s fine. However, you know that you can’t use your animal side to hurt anyone, right?

But he was talking about sending me away to get help, and I love my human family. I would miss them.

That makes me happy. Do you ever tell mommy and daddy that?

I think me being a cat makes them sad.

Do you think that sometimes you could use human words to tell them how you feel, since they don’t speak your cat language?

I’ll try. I’ll send in mommy.

Mrs. Brown, Bella is often shifting into her therian lifestyle because she believes she is a cat. The reason she doesn’t use words to express that is because she’s afraid you two will be sad, or maybe mad, since her dad wanted to send her away. She loves her human family, her words, and would miss you. Just listen to her if she wants to talk. No judgement. Let her be who she wants to be. She will have years to figure out her life. Who is she hurting?

We will try.

Good, maybe take her to a park, let her play outside, and if she walks around like a cat, who cares? These days there are no rules. Children are figuring things out, a lot of kids at school identify as a he, she, them, they, which is gender neutral. It’s a very confusing time for kids, so just let her explore her own identity, no matter what it looks like to you.

Thank-you doctor, I appreciate the advice. My friend told me that they were allowing litter boxes in some schools, and that sort of freaked me out.

I did hear that rumor, and I can assure you that it is not true. Take care.

Dr. Jones, thanks for seeing me again so soon. We took Dr. Smith’s advice and have been embracing Bella’s new lifestyle. No, we did not agree to the litter box idea, but we did take her to the park and let her chase the squirrels, luckily, she did not catch one. We got some odd looks, but we ignored them. I let her lie on my lap and I brushed her hair| fur, and she purred, which I guess it made her happy. She did talk to us, and told us she just really felt like she was a cat. We just smiled, and said okay dear. I think we had a breakthrough though. Saturday, after the park, she used her human words to ask if we could get ice cream. We about fell out. It’s been over two months since she wanted to go for ice cream. We took it as a good sign.

I’m happy for you, just don’t get too over excited yet. A lot of places do have pup cups. One day at a time.

We will, have a furtastic day.