Actress Aditi Rao Hydari recently shot for a campaign for SHEBA alongside her two cats, Iggy and Ollie , and opened up about her deep bond with animals, the lessons her pets have taught her, and how mealtimes have now become moments of connection.
“I have grown up around cats and dogs, and I have two cats at home, Iggy and Ollie. With them, I have to say that love is not effortless at all. It takes effort, and it’s a great learning for me, because I have grown up believing that I’m surrounded by love. I’ve never had a day where I’ve doubted it. I’m very lucky to be able to say that,” Aditi shares.
However, she admits that cats operate very differently. “But with my cats, it’s different. You have to earn their love, and they really make you work for it. They are very intelligent creatures. They sense everything. So when there’s more intention, more thought, more mindful care, I think they feel it," she adds.
For fellow cat parents, the experience became surprisingly emotional and insightful. “For all the cat people, I want to say, it actually made it really fun. It was also a big learning because with cats, how you earn their love has to be with more intention. What really matters to Iggy and Ollie is what actually becomes priority. So my time with them, especially feeding them, became more than just a routine. It became about a connection. It became about paying attention to them. It became about understanding that food, and in this case Sheba cat food, can actually work that magic to create that connection.”
Aditi adds that the shift in her cats’ behaviour has been impossible to miss. “I think mealtimes have just become a lot more fun. And I think they feel it too, because there is a huge shift in their response. They suddenly became more reciprocative, more attentive, and they gave me less attitude," she says.
At home too, she jokes that the cats are the real bosses. “At home, everything revolves around Iggy and Ollie. They run the house, and Siddharth and I are the designated treat dispensers. Both of us are very on it with Iggy and Ollie, and we are taking these mealtimes very seriously. Siddharth is very good with it as well. Now that we have Sheba, it is a little more balanced. I would like to say love play, not power play," she concludes.
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