Bizarre Human-Animal Bonding

The connection between people and other animals, either wild or domesticated animals such as pets, like cats, dogs, birds, lizards, or exotic pets is called  human–animal bonding. In the late 18th century when, in York, England, The Retreat was established by the Society of Friends made a research about the human-animal bonding to provide treatment for people who are mentally ill. A French surgeon had patients with neurological disorders ride horses in Paris in 1870s, and found the patients to improved their balance and their motor control and suffered less depression. In Bielefeld, Germany, epileptic patients were prescribed to spend time each day taking care of cats and dogs in the 19th century, and has proven that human-animal bonding was found to reduce the occurrence of seizures. Since then numerous animals were domesticated for functional use, for instance, dogs for tracking and bringing animals together into a group, or cats for killing mice or rats.  A University of Pennsylvania team of scientists’ research and made studies in 1980, that contact between human to animal was found to reduce the physiological characteristics of stress, tension and anxiety, lowered levels of blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, were all found to correlate positively with human–pet bonding.  An animal kept primarily inside their homes for company or protection purposes, as opposed to working animals, sports animals for performances, livestock  for agricultural value, and laboratory animals for researches, is known as a pet or companion animal. The most popular pets are noted for their attractive appearances, loyal or playful personalities and for company. The therapy animals,  is a medically approved class of pets, commonly dogs, that are brought to visit confined patients. The dogs and cats were the most popular pets, but some people and pet owners also love to keep exotic pets such as snakes, turtles, lizards, tarantulas, hermit crabs and frogs, and some keep house rabbits, birds, ferrets, gerbils, hamsters, chinchillas, fancy rats, guinea pigs or any aquatic pets, skunks, alligators and many more. Some pet owners are being obsessed by their pets or other religious beliefs, practiced the human-animal marriages.

Weird Pets

A domesticated rabbit is called a house rabbit kept for companionship and can be trained to use a litter boxes, litter trays that lives inside its owner’s home and when taken cared properly. People who wanted to adopt animals for pets, there are many animal shelters, humane societies, and rescue groups where rabbits are available for adoption. Rabbit’s ovaries are often remove surgically or neutered for health and behavior benefits or to reduce the chance of unwanted offspring. Rabbits that are not spayed or neutered during adolescence, may start to display territorial marking, which can frustrate efforts to train littering and can damage household items. There are numerous house rabbits who have successfully cohabited with the family dog or cat, but in some cases, house rabbits left alone with other pets such as dogs and cats, can be dangerous, as animals there is possibility of behavioral changes with aggressive predatory instincts or overenthusiastic play can lead to the dog or cat attacking the rabbit spontaneously. Guinea pigs can be successfully housed with house rabbits, but in some cases it could be risky, so it is advised not to take the risk, because most Guinea pigs are susceptible to respiratory disease from bacteria that rabbits could carry and also rabbits may harm small rodents that shares the territory of the rabbits. House rabbits may be kept in wire or wooden cages, because of the cage has space limitations that may allow rabbits to run free, or limited exercise pen or house area.

The ferret (Mustela putorius furo) is the European Polecat a mammal that belongs to the weasel genus of the family Mustelidae which are domesticated and trained as house pets. The ferrets are typically brown, black, white, or mixed fur in colors. The Ferrets are crepuscular, meaning, they are most active around the hours of twilight or dawn and dusk and sleeps during the day. Ferrets are territorial, like to burrow or dig, and prefer to sleep in an areas that are enclosed. Ferrets are carnivores or meat eaters. Ferrets are known to suffering from several distinct health problems such as cancers that affect their adrenal glands, pancreas and lymphatic system, and their common viral diseases include influenza and canine distemper. The weasels and ferret’s behavioral is seen when they get excited they perform the weasel war dance, while animals in the wild, the weasel war dance is used to confuse or disorient prey. Ferrets are known as laboratory animals because they used as an important experimental animal model for human influenza, and have been used to study the 2009 swine flu or H1N1 virus, study of pathogenesis and treatment in a variety of human disease, such as studies into cardiovascular disease, nutrition, respiratory diseases such as SARS, airway physiology, cystic fibrosis and gastrointestinal disease.

A gerbil is a small mammal of the order Rodentia formerly known as desert rats, and the gerbil subfamily which have about 110 species of African, Indian and Asian rodents, including sand rats and jirds or Meriones (a rodent genus including the gerbil commonly kept as a pet) all of which are adapted to arid habitats. Most are primarily diurmal (a plant or animal behavior who are more active during the day and sleep during the night). Gerbils are known as social animals, and live in groups in the wild. Gerbil rely on their sense of smell to identify other members of their family, and the method of split tank is important to use when introducing the gerbils from the separate litters. Gerbils are also known to attack and often kill those carrying an unfamiliar scent.

Chinchillas are most active around the dawn and dusk rodents, which is slightly larger and more robust than ground squirrels, and inhabitants of the Andes mountains in South America, commonly in Bolivia, Peru and Chile and live in colonies in the wild known as herds. Chinchillas are listed currently as endangered species by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to a population loss caused by hunters who hunts Chinchilla. Chinchillas have a variety of defensive tactics, such as spraying urine and if beaten they release fur. Chinchillas in the wild  have been observed eating plant leaves, fruit seeds and insects. Chinchillas as pets require extensive exercise, their teeth need to be worn down, as they grow continuously and can prevent them from eating if they become overgrown. Chinchillas’ teeth can be wron out by the used of pumice stone, chew toys or chew wooden sticks such as birch tree, willow, apple, manzanilla or any kiln-dried pine woods which is safe for chinchillas, but avoid giving them conifer and citrus woods, such as cedar or orange, because of the high content of resins, oils and phenols that are toxic for chinchillas. Chinchillas lack the ability to sweat, so when their body temperatures get above 25°C or 80°F, chinchillas body causes overheat and may suffer from heat stroke. Chinchillas disperse their body heat by routing blood to their large ears, so red ears signal overheating. Feeding sweets and dried fruit treats should be limited to once per day, at the very most, this can cause diarrhea or diabetes. Feeding them nuts should be avoided or limited, due to their high fat content, and also high protein foods and alfalfa hay can cause liver problems. There are species of chinchillas, and they are the short-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla chinchilla) formerly known as Chinchilla brevicaudata and Chinchilla lanigera or the long-tailed chinchilla.

The guinea pig (Cavia porcellus), also called the cavy, is a species of rodent  that belongs to the family Cavidae and the genus Cavia. Guinea pigs are not in the pig family despite their common names, nor are they from Guinea, but originated in the Andes. Guinea pigs are still used in medical research, for human medical conditions such as juvenile diabetes, tuberculosis, scurvy and pregnancy complications. Guinea pigs can be trained and learn complex paths to food, and can accurately remember a learned path for months. Motion is the Guinea pig’s strongest problem solving strategy. When excited, guinea pigs may repeatedly perform little hops in the air known as popcorning, a movement similar to the weasel war dance of the ferrets and weasel. Guinea pigs are also exceedingly good swimmers.

Birds class of Aves or clade Avialae are the feathered, winged, two-legged, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrates. Aves ranks as the tetrapod class with the most approximately ten thousand of living species. Extant or such as species, genera and families of birds belong to the subclass Neornithes, or modern birds living worldwide and ranging in size as small as bee hummingbird from the 5 cm (2 in) to as big as the ostrich with size of 2.75 m (9 ft). Many bird species are important economically as game birds or poultry or used for harvesting guano or bird droppings for use as fertilizers. Most popular birds as pets are the songbirds and parrots. Most birds are diurnal or active during daytime and sleep at night time, while many bird species of owls and nightjars, are nocturnal or crepuscular active during twilight hours or dawn and dusk, and many coastal waders feed when the tides are appropriate, by day or night.  Birds have been domesticated by humans both as pets and for practical purposes. Colorful birds, such as parrots and mynas, are bred in captivity and kept as pets due to their capability to learn how to talk when trained by humans, which is a practice leading to illegal trafficking of some endangered species. Since birds are common animals and are highly visible, humans have had a mutualistic  relationship sometimes, with their pet birds, like the cooperative honey-gathering honeyguides also known as indicator birds, or honey birds and African Borana people. Other times, Some birds are sometime may be commensal or commensalism is a type of relationship between two organisms where one organism benefits without affecting the other, as when species such as the house sparrow have benefited from human activities. There several kind of bird species that have become commercially agricultural pests, and some pose an aviation hazard where some flocks of birds accidentally get inside the plane’s engine or propellers. Some birds can act as vectors for spreading diseases such as psittacosis also known as parrot fever,Salmonellosis is a Salmonella bacteria infection, Campylobacteriosis most common bacterial infections of humans, often a food borne illness produces an inflammatory, sometimes bloody, diarrhea or dysentery syndrome, mostly including cramps, fever and pain, mycobacteriosis  or avian tuberculosis, avian influenza (bird flu), Giardiasis (popularly known as beaver fever, a zoonotic parasitic disease and Cryptosporidiosis, also known as crypto, a parasitic disease over long distances. Some of these are zoonotic disease or Zoonosis diseases, an infectious disease transmitted between sometimes by a vector from animals other than humans or from humans to animals, that can also be transmitted to humans.

The snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) is a large owl of the typical owl family Strigidae, and the Canadian Province of Quebec official bird.  Owls, are birds of the order Strigiformes, include about 200 species of mostly nocturnal birds or prey and solitary bird (spend most of their lives without others the same species) typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision and binaural hearing, and feathers adapted for silent flight. Exceptions include the diurnal northern hawk-owl and the gregarious burrowing owl where they nest and roost (sleeping birds sleep known as vigilant sleep, where during the periods of rest are interspersed with quick eye-opening or peeks) in burrows, which are excavated by prairie dog. Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects and other birds, while other owl’s few species specialize in hunting fish. The two families of Owls are the Strigidae family or the true owls and Tytonidae family, or the barn-owls. Owls are farsighted and unable to see clearly anything within a few centimeters of their eyes, but can rotate their heads and necks as much as 270 degrees  Most owls are nocturnal, active during the night and hunt their prey only in darkness. There have been incidents when owls have attacked humans, though they have the human-animal bonding, in January 2013,  where a man from Inverness, Scotland was attack by a two-feet tall eagle owl, the man went into shock and suffered bleeding heavily.

The pig-nosed turtle (Carettochelys insculpta), also known as the pitted-shelled turtle or Fly River turtle, is a turtle species and inhabitant to fresh waters and flowing waters, lagoons and rivers of northern territory of Australia and southern New Guinea.The Pig-nosed turtles have become an exotic pet exotic, and in few instances their captivity occurs during breeding season.

Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with approximately 6,000 species ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The lizard group, recognized as the suborder Lacertilia, is defined as all extant members of the reptiles with overlapping scales known as Lepidosauria that are neither sphenodonts example,the reptiles endemic to New Zealand known as the  tuatara nor snakes, they form an evolutionary grade or group of species united by morphological (form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features) or physiological (study of nature, origin) traits. Most lizard species are harmless to humans. The largest lizard species, known to stalk, attack, and kill humans on occasion is the Komodo dragon, that grew bigger . The venomous Gila monster and the beaded lizard are not commonly deadly, but their bites are extremely painful because of their powerful jaws.  Numerous species of lizard are kept as pets such as the bearded dragons, iguanas, anoles (they are sometimes confused with geckos) and geckos which the most popular is the leopard gecko. Some lizards have an affinity for humans, but many are suspicious or skittish around them. Lizards that bite humans are very rare. Lizards are predominantly insectivorous, but some eat fruit, or vegetables.

 

Some snakes commonly the easy to train or manage species such as the corn snake and ball python are kept as pets in the Western countries and developed the captive breeding industry to meet this demand. However, snakes can be a better pets when the snakes bred in captivity and are considered preferable to snakes caught in the wild. Python regius also known as royal python or ball python, is a nonvenomous python species found in Africa, the smallest of the African pythons and is popular in the pet trade, because of its typically easy to manage temperament, and there are no subspecies of this pythons are currently recognized. The ball python is a terrestrial species known for coiling into a tight ball, with their head and neck tucked away in the middle, for its defense strategy when threatened, Ball python can literally be rolled around in this state. Ball python retreats or can hide in any mammal burrows and other underground hiding places, where they also aestivate or Dormancy (in animals, a period in an organism’s life cycle when growth, development, and physical activity are temporarily stopped). They ball python are considered good pets, in captivity, because captive bred adults rarely bite.

The corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus) is a North American species of rat snakes that captures its small prey by constriction or coil the prey tightly, due to most snakes which use constriction lack venom. The corn snake name was popularized from the days when southern  farmers stored harvested ears of corn in a crib, a wooden box or container. Rats and mice attack the corn crib to feed on the corn, and corn snakes attack the rats and mice as their prey. The corn snakes resembles the venomous Copperhead snake, and often killed as a result of this mistaken identity. Corn snakes are harmless and beneficial to humans, due to lack of venom and help control populations of wild rodent pests that damage crops and spread disease. Corn snakes are one of the most popular types of snakes to keep in captivity or as pets.

 

Frogs are a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians compose by the order Anura, in ancient Greek it means without tail. The skins of the frogs vary in color from camouflaged dappled brown, grey, and green to vivid patterns of bright red or yellow and black to reveal their toxicity and to warn off predators. Frogs typically lay their eggs in water and some frogs have the ability to change colors but this usually restricted to a small range of colors. During the breeding season, frogs produce a wide range of vocalizations, and show off many different kinds of complex behaviors to attract mates, and scare off predators to survive. Most people commonly believed that physical contact with a frog or toads can cause human skin warts.  But  actuality, warts in human is caused by a human internal viral infections, so a toad could not possibly cause a wart to human. The parotoid glands, external skin gland on the toad‘s back, neck, and shoulder,  which toads use to secrete toxins, are often mistaken for warts.

 

Tarantulas comprise a group of often hairy and very large arachnids, that belongs to the Theraphosidae family of spiders with approximately 900 species of spiders. Some tarantula’s genera hunts their prey primarily in trees, while other tarantulas hunt on or near the ground. All tarantulas can produce silk, while the arboreal species typically dwell in a silken tube tent, and these terrestrial species will line their burrows with silk to stabilize the wall of the burrow and facilitate climbing up and down. Tarantulas used their ambush method of capturing their prey mainly eat insects and other arthropods. Bigger tarantulas can kill animals as large as lizards, mice, birds and small snakes. Most tarantula species are not dangerous to humans, and some species have become popular in the exotic pet trade. Most tarantulas in the New World, will kick urticating hairs (irritating bristles, are one of the primary defense mechanisms) from their abdomens and their back legs if disturbed, rather than biting their predators. Tarantulas are only slightly venomous to humans and are considered extremely easy to train or manage, though, their bites can intensify allergies.

Hermit crabs are decapod crustaceans of the Paguroidea superfamily which most of the 1100 species possess an asymmetrical abdomen which is concealed in an empty gastropod shell, carried around by the hermit crab. Most of the hermit crab species have long, spirally curved soft abdomens, unlike the hard, calcified abdomens seen in other related crustaceans. The hermit crab’s vulnerable abdomen is protected by a salvaged empty seashell as protection from predators, carried by the hermit crab, into which its whole body can retract.  Hermit crabs use the shells of sea snails frequently, although the shells of bivalves and scaphopods and even hollow pieces of wood and stone are used by some hermit crab species. Among the approximately 15 terrestrial species in the world, the most commonly kept as pets, were the Caribbean hermit crab (Coenobita clypeatus), Australian land hermit crab (Coenobita variabilis), and the Ecuadorian hermit crab (Coenobita compressus). And the less common but and becoming available as the pet trade and popular as pets are the other species, such as Coenobita brevimanus, Coenobita rugosus, Coenobita perlatus or Coenobita cavipes. These species of the omnivorous or herbivorous species can be useful in the household aquarium as scavengers, because they eat algae and debris that developed inside the aquariums.

 

The coconut crab, Birgus latro, is a species of terrestrial hermit crab, also called the robber crab or palm thief, the largest land-living arthropod in the world. The coconut crab is the only known species of the genus Birgus, and is related to the genus Coenobita of terrestrial hermit crabs, which the coconut crabs shows some adaptations to life on land. A juvenile coconut crab uses empty gastropod shells like the hermit crabs for protection, but the adult coconut crab develops a tough exoskeleton on its abdomen and stops carrying a shell. Adult coconut crabs have no known predators apart from other coconut crabs and people around them. The coconut crab’s large size and the quality of its meat, the reason the coconut crab is hunted extensively and is rare on islands with a human population.

Examples of Human-Animal Marriages

A German fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld, artist, and photographer based in Paris, and also the head designer and creative director of the Chanel fashion house and the Italian house Fendi and his own label fashion house. Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, age 80, announced in June 2013, that he wished to marry his pet cat, a red point Berman cat, Choupette, were it legal. During an interview CNN, Lagerfeld said,“There is no marriage, yet, for human beings and animals, and I never thought that I would fall in love like this with a cat.”

Ngurah Alit, an unemployed, 18 year-old Indonesian man, was forced to marry his cow in June 2010, after he was caught by the cow’s owner, in a Bali paddy, standing naked behind the cow. Alit claimed the cow was a young and beautiful woman, and seduced him with flattering compliments. Ngurah Alit was then forced to marry the cow to cleanse of the bestiality of Yeh Embang coastal village. However during the animal-human “wedding rites” and ritual, Alit passed out as the locals and police of Bali drafted in to keep journalists at bay, looked on and his mother began crying. Alit became a widower immediately, just after the rites when his new bride was drowned in the sea as part of the Pecaruan ritual, while the groom, Ngurah Alit was only symbolically drowned and bathed on the beach. Chief Ida Bagus Legawa announced that the Yeh Embang village had then been “cleansed”. In India, the Hindu religion, they honor the cattles. In several states of the Indian Union, it is forbidden by law to slaughter cows (including oxen, bulls and calves). In India, McDonald’s outlets do not serve beef burgers. 

 Emily Mabou, 29, of Aburi, Ghana married the 18-month-old dog in February 2011, a ceremony attended by a traditional priest and local, curious villagers. David Mabou, Emily’s younger brother, said her family boycott the wedding which they thought and felt was “a stupid step to combat her loneliness”. But according to the “bride”, Emily Mabou, “For so long, I’ve been praying for a life partner who will have all the qualities of my dad. My dad was kind, faithful, and loyal to my mum, and he never let her down. I’ve been in relationships with so many men, and they are all the same, cheaters and skirt-chasers. My dog is kind, and loyal to me and he treats me with so much respect.” During the wedding ceremony, the priest warned villagers not to mock the wedding, but to “rejoice with her as she has found happiness at last”. In

 Joseph Guiso, a 20-year-old Australian man, married his pet and best friend, Honey, a five-year-old Labrador in December 2010. Joseph Guiso and Honey were married and “joined in matrimony” at Toowoomba’s Laurel Bank Park in Australia attended by 30 friends and family members turned up to witness the event. Guiso claimed as a religious man and also claims that he felt guilty living with Honey out of wedlock. However, Guiso assured people that he married Honey, “it’s not sexual. It’s just pure love.”

Selva Kumar, 33, a man in southern India married a 10 year old  female dog, Selvi, in November 2007, in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to repent for stoning two other dogs to death, an act he believes cursed him. When Selva Kumar was 18 years old he stoned and clubbed to death two dogs he had found engaged in mating, and Kumar then hung their carcasses from a tree, 15 years ago. And since then Kumar claims that his personal suffering began. His legs and hands became paralyzed and he lost hearing in one ear. After fifteen years, Kumar could no longer take what he claims dog curse and the physical pain of the curse, and so he sought the advice of an astrologer.

A 75-year-old man in Nepal married a dog in a local custom to ensure good luck in 2004. However, this belief did not materialized when the old man died three days after the human-animal wedding. According to the information, The old man was following a custom of his Tharu community, according to some sources, which holds that an old man who regrows teeth must take a dog as a bride.

Karnamoni Handsa, a nine-year-old tribal girl in eastern India of the Santal (or ‘Santhal’) tribe of Khanyhan, near Calcutta was formally married to a stray dog, in June 11, 2003, in order to ward off an evil spell or bad omen, where the wedding was attended by more than one hundred guests, who were dancing to the beat of the drums and drank home-made liquor. Handsa married the dog as part of a ritual to ward evil spell on her tooth rooted to her upper gum, which the Santhal tribe considered as a bad omen. The girl told the Western press, “I have no regret in marrying the dog. I will take care of this dog who was stray and survived on left-overs,” and according to tribal elders, she was still free to remarry as an adult to a human in future.

Vigneswari and Masiakanni, the two seven-year-old girls from the remote village of Pallipudupet, India were married to frogs in January 2009, in a bizarre ritual. The bizarre ceremony was conducted “to prevent the outbreak of mysterious diseases in the village,”  and the two girls, Vigneswari and Masiakanni, dressed up in traditional bridal finery, with gilded sarees and gold jewellery and married their frog princes separately, in an elaborated ceremonies at two different temples in the presence of hundreds of villagers. The villagers threw themselves into the ceremonies, while residents living in the western part of the village acted as the bride’s relatives and those from the eastern part play-acted as relatives of the groom frogs. The wedding ceremonies had all of the usual traditional wedding elements including a sumptuous feast.

 

Sharon Tendler is a millionaire British woman in Israel married Cindy, a male bottlenose dolphin in January 2006. Cindy, the bottlenose dolphin, was taken in 1990 from the Black Sea and was brought to the Dolphin Reef dolhinarium in Eilat, Israel, in the Gulf of Aqaba, and there Sharon Tendler saw Cindy performing in a show. For the past fifteen years, Tendler continued visiting Cindy before she requested permission to wed the dolphin in 2005.  Permission was granted and on December 28, 2005, the ceremony was held.  Tendler admitted herself, that the human-animal marriage had no legal standing and was non-exclusive and that the ceremony was, in her own words, “a bit of fun” after her friends joked about Sharon, age 41, of  being single. Cindy was the father of all of the dolphins born in the sea, and Tendler kept an open option to be married with human, but she said she was strictly a one dolphin woman. Cindy’s name is normally a woman’s name, and was often mistakenly stated that the marriage was a same-sex marriage. On June 8, 2006, Cindy the Bottlenose dolphin died after three weeks of poor health, less than a year after the marriage.

Charles Tombe, a Sudanese man, was forced to marry Rose, a goat, in February 2006, and pay dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars or US$75 to the goat’s owner, after the owner caught Tombe having sex with Rose the goat. The council of the elders forced Tombe to marry the goat and this 2006′s Sudanese goat marriage incident was an event and publicity in which a Christian South Sudanese man was forced to marry a goat with which he was caught engaging in bestiality (human-animal sexual activity in the Hai Malakal suburb of Juba, South Sudan.

 Mark Matthews married Pixel, his pony in 1992. He was featured in an episode titled I Married a Horse in The Jerry Springer Show in May 1998, however the said show was ultimately not aired by many stations on the scheduled playdate, apparently due to concerns about the broadcasting acceptability an episode in which a man’s admitting to a long term human-animal emotional and sexual relationship of this kind. Later, the man and his horse participated in a British documentary film about the subject of human-animal marriage.

Bimbala Das, an Indian woman from Bhubaneswar, Orissa claimed she have fallen in love with a cobra got married to the reptile with its traditional Hindu wedding attended by 2,000 guests. Bimbala said: “Though snakes cannot speak nor understand, we communicate in a peculiar way. Whenever I put milk near the ant hill where the Cobra lives, and always comes out to drink.” The villagers appreciated the idea of Bimbala marrying the snake, believing that the marriage will bring good fortune to the village, and offered grand feasts for those who will attend the wedding. Bimbala revealed that she was previously ill, and recovered from her illness when she started offering milk to the snake, and later fell in love with the snake. Bimbala later, converted to the animal-loving vegetarian Vaishnav sect whose local elders gave her the permission to marry the cobra. In a 2007′s investigation by Harper’s magazine, Mischa Berlinski, a journalist suggested that the said snake may not even existed, and the human-snake marriage may have been staged as a local power struggle between Vaishnav religious leaders.

Uwe Mitzscherlich, a German postman in Germany has married Cecilia, his black-and-white cat. The blushing cat bride was dressed in white for the bizarre wedding, although Uwe hired an actress had to play as the bride, and unofficially name him as husband and wife to the registrar after stunned officials refused to carry out the ceremony. Uwe’s marriage to Cecilia, his cat follows 39 years together. Uwe found out that his cat Cecilia was ill, and he proposed marriage to his cat. The German law actually prohibits pet owners from marrying their pet. So Uwe Mitzscherlich hired an actress to play the part of the bride.  As BBC reports, The groom and the bride cat have lived together for 10 years and reportedly have been inseparable since their marriage. The actress was Christin-Maria Lohri, who performed as the bride, who described the wedding ceremony a dream come true for the groom.