This made me cry

+rep......



Cheers Glen.

 

Too true. Most people are under the misconception that cats are stereotypically uncaring of anyone but themselves.

Whenever I leave the house, my cat meows mournfully at my leaving. I know this because my roommate informed me of it. What makes it especially endearing is the fact that she is a non-vocal cat. She hardly ever meows.

When I return, she greets me with love and affection.

 

Thanx Glen.

Too many are people have the false impression that cats only care about themselves. Whilst in some cases this may be true, it most certainly isn't if they have formed a real bond with a human companion.

My current cat, despite once being a stray (I got him from a cat shelter), is incredibly affectionate. It took a few months for him to fully come out of his shell and reveal his true self, but now, you'd think he'd been with me since he was a kitten. He regularly snuggles up to me, and butts me with his head (which I learned on a documentary about Tigers is a way that they show affection to each other). He also seems to have a sixth sense, and knows when I'm about to go out. lol It never fails, any time I'm about 5 or 10 minutes away from leaving, he'll come into my room and won't leave, as if he knows fine well I'm about to go, and is trying to prevent me from leaving. There's a lot more to cats than many people realize...

 

I think I understand. It's not necessarily - for e.g - a particular cat, but cat's in general? A general 'cat behaviour'? I guess that is what is so strange to me. I loved my cat. But did my cat love me? If my cat happened to lose it's way and find its self in another home - would it miss me? Would it just form anther attachment to another person? Do they form attachments?

I think I can find it in my heart to understand loss.


We seem to form connections with animals - that is clear.
Some who love - for e.g - cats, eat cows and fish - but, I guess, that's just food. No need to cry over a cow is there?

 

You Can't Extract Understanding From A Stone...



Cheers Glen.

 

That is such an over-generalisation. Lots of people who love cats (and dogs) care about other animals too. I myself, get very upset knowing the conditions that a lot of factory farmed animals are kept in, and the inhumane treatment that they recieve.

 

When I was a child my cat Lulu had premature kittens.I was at home alone so had to deal with it myself.They were like tiny drowned rats,all translucent pink skin,like something from the bottom of a garbage can.I thought I could save them by putting them on a foot-stool in front of a heater.Their Mum was very upset too but at the same time she didn't want anything to do with them...I think she knew.There was no way they were going to survive.Slowly one by one they died.I put them in a bag and buried them in the park opposite my house.Yes,I cried.This was my first real contact with death.Would I cry if the same thing happened today? I don't know,but it's certainly possible.

 

Fuck you, Glen. I have a heart.

That was kinda rude, but I won't have people thinking I don't care etc simply because I'm not in tears over a dead cat - even my own dead cat.

 

Cheers Glen.

 

A concern about an animals living conditions doesn't stop you munching on a beef burger or a chicken wing, does it? A militant view is that you should not be killing animals to eat. Especially not on an industrial scale. I wouldn't go that far, but peoples feelings for animals have very different, and somewhat, hypocritical levels, wouldn't you say?

ftr, I'm a vegetarian.

 

It is not just that you would not cry a river over a dead cat. You have been called out on this thread due to the fact that you think it is absolutely ridiculous to even feel any type of emotion whatsoever in regard to a companion, despite it being non-human, dying in your care. Everyone experiences grief differently, yet you seem to dismiss the grief over an animal companion as though it is abnormal.

 

Is this a 'fuck you' 'no, fuck you' stand-off? :devil:

 

I have not said it is ridiculous to feel any type of emotion. I understand that I don't understand outright grief and crying over an animal. I think my lack of understanding has been used to swing me to the far reaches of the spectrum of this debate - I don't think that is fair.

 

And Deservedly So...



Cheers Glen.

 

And how do you know I do those things? I can agree that sometimes "animal lovers" can be quite hypocritical. What they actually are, is "dog lovers", or "cat lovers", to use 2 examples. I will readily admit, that I find cats to be mystical and extra special creatures. However, I think that ALL animals, regardless of species, deserve to live in contentment, and in an envoirenment that is free from pain and stress.

 

this is a very interesting point to me;

when the cat attacks; he is ignorant of the consequences and does not intend to harm, but if a human did something similar, he would be in the wrong because of his understanding of the situation; he would be made responsible because of his intellect.

yet when a cat loves, he can do it unconditionally. and when a human loves, it rarely is (apparently. i can't remember who it was who was arguing this, but to them)

it is fair to say, then, do you think, that unconditional love is founded on ignorance, to a certain extent? or that human's self-awareness makes it difficult?

either there's a double standard at play here, (when cats are bad, they don't know what they're doing/when they love, they do) or else love is actually predicated on a certain lack of understanding.

are animals better at unconditional love because they rely more heavily on instinct?

 

Yes...



Cheers Glen.

 

I'm sure there are plenty of cat lovers in this thread who don't get attached to dogs. It's fine either way. Just because you get emotionally attached to one species doesn't mean it will happen to all. I have a friend that is seriously bonded with her pet snake but I doubt many people are capable of forming that kind of bond..

I can dig it that people get so attached to cats but I've never really been like that. I admire cats because they're so independent.

 

Robin Reardon, an amazing author, wrote about how animals can provide unconditional love whereas humans are absolutely incapable of doing so. The book The Evolution of Ethan Poe.

 

Odon - you say there is no need to cry over a cow. When you eat meat, you have not met this animal, you have not bonded with this animal or even seen it as a living animal. With your own animals you spend so much time with them and form a relationship, you dont do that with a burger.

I am sure that farmers who may become attached to cows, chickens etc, feel emotion once theyve gone. It is different in factory farms though, as the animals are not looked after and have very very very little human interaction.

I work in an animal shelter, specifically in the cat department. There was a cat there named Mourinho, he was old and riddled with cancer, he couldnt move, he barely ate a scrap, I only met him twice as he was in the intensive care unit which wasn't my allocated area at the time. When he died the entire shelter was upset, some overcome with tears (yes, grown mature men included) because this cat touched the hearts of so many, he was grateful for what people had done for him and the look in his eyes as he died was one of thankfullness. I had a lump in my throat as I had to clean his cage out to prepare it for another cat, blood on the walls where he bled everytime he moved too much, the operations didnt help for long. Its an emotional thing, knowing that this cat had been there moments before, he lived a life of pain but was always affectionate and loving to anybody who he met.

Having empathy for animals is no different to having empathy for humans, maybe the man who eats the burger wont cry for it, but there are plenty of people out there who acknowledge the pain animals go through daily and acknowledge that although we cant communicate on a human level, that we still can communicate and that animals do just that, everyday, whether it be through noise, behaviours or just through the look in their eyes.

Sometime, Odon, people and animals just understand eachother, they help eachother and form strong relationships that just can't be forgotton. My two cats are misfits, outcast from their homes, abandoned, they are like me which is why we get on so well, I feel their pain and they feel mine.