I so love cats; they are just the coolest 😻. I love animals in general and go into heart pounding rage when I hear anything about animal cruelty. I saw a video yesterday of someone dumping a dog by the side of the road, and a man that lives nearby regularly adopts these poor babies as the dumping there is common practice. Another I didn't watch showed a dumper who then ran over the dog.
If I had the money and facilities, I would take every stray in. I still tear up when I think about cats I've lost over the years. My current baby was a rescue from the middle of a 4-lane interstate who caught my eye as I was driving. Apparently she was dumped but wasn't injured except that her paws were raw and bloody from trying to climb the concrete median wall and running. After I got her home, she couldn't even move her hindquarters for a whole day because she was so worn out.
The dogs see cats as prey, going by their behaviour when I walking them down in the village. "Small thing running equals fun"-stance.
There's an abundance of foxes and badgers.
Plus the lynx that prowls the woods around here.
Also, eagles.
People down in the village let their cats roam, and every once in a while one of those cats disappears. It's sad but that's life and the price for living free-er than most cats. Mostly though it's summer guests who loses a cat. Some of those are stupid enough to bring a city cat used to apartment life and then let it roam free. Poor kitty just isn't used to a forest full of things to whom kitty = food.
Trying to explain that to city-people is like telling a mask-cultist masking doesn't work.
Take good care of your animals folks. If you make the calls, then you bear the blame.
We currently have 7 cats. We’ve had 14 strays. I was a dog person until we moved to our farm, now I have cats. In the country, cats aren’t valued, people abandon cats at the end of our driveway so we take care of them when they find our house. Some have been seriously sick. 5 of the currents cats are indoor/outdoor and come in at night (we have coyotes and bobcats) the other 2 stay in the barn. Many of these cats won’t come inside because they are used to being outside. Some have “disappeared”. On this past Friday, the 14th abandoned cat came, he had a red collar with a bell. Clearly someone’s indoor cat. We talked to several neighbors who didn’t know him. We took him to the humane society. We can’t afford anymore cats. Note, if you’re going to abandon a cat, take the collar with the bell off.
You're a nicer person than me, that's for sure. I wouldn't have written:
"...if you’re going to abandon a cat, take the collar with the bell off."
I'd have put it, "...if you're going to abandon a cat or any other animal, stay indoors during hunting season and look twice before crossing the road".
Animals are helpless against us. Therefore we have a moral imperative obligation to not mistreat them, cause undue suffering or destroy their habitats. Animals are innocent; we're not.
I have to wonder, what kind of people living in the countryside doesn't value cats? Arethey all expats from the cities, or do they just love having rats and mice in their barns and outhouses and seed stores?
I don't have cats as mentioned above so I have to buy traps for the mice (no rats here, thnakfully). Problem is, the vixen who claims our lot as part of her turf regularly checks the traps too, the ones she can get at, and if there's anything in it, well she brings it with her. I've found several up on the sloping hill behind the house.
Also, the vipers living here cull the mice population quite nicely, and the European Viper (Vipera berus) is about as venomous as regular bee or wasp; unless you're allergic or a small child at worst you'll have painful burning cramps for a couple of hours.
Where I live, dogs are valued far more. “Working” cats aren’t abandoned, (your defenders of barns, outhouses and feed stores) it’s people who adopt cats and can’t deal with their habits in my opinion, who abandon the cats. I have known city folks who dump the cats in the country because they think they will have a great life on a farm. I just wonder how many of the “tinker bells” haven’t made here…
We don’t have snakes that would kill cats, we have cats that kill snakes, to them they are tasty morsels…
Having cats is like having 8-11 year old children (we have 3 grown children) around. They each can reason like that age range, pretty funny really.
I guess we’re the crazy cat people, aren’t we? Our vet asked if we had a neon “suckers” sign on a tall post at the end of our (mile long) drive.
I think living in too large cities does something to you, especially if you also grow up there and your parents did too, something not very good for ability to understand complex chains of events and causality and also something to your understanding of Nature's nature.
From many city-dwellers, the true urbanites many of whom belong to the caste called "Anywheres" in modern socio-political analysis something seems amiss. A tiny yet important humility before the truth that many things are greater than us and that events and states of being doesn't dance to our wishes and wants.
I know I always felt something missing from me when I lived in Stockholm. No cohesion with others really, not in any natural way. You didn't matter among the teeming hordes. Maybe this is just me. Maybe it's the anomie and alienation described by sociologists when huge cities were starting to become the norm during the 19th century.
That tiny missing piece is what leads to the behaviour and attitude you describe, dumping animals - living feeling beings - just because someone got bored or it didn't "fit with life-style expectations and visions".
I olden days, a farmer mistreating his animals was seen as a Black Mark against him. Cruelty against the helpless upon which he depends on? Such a person is to be watched closely, not trusted and to be shunned as much as decorum permits.
The anonymity of cities breeds contempt and arrogance in equal amounts, I think.
I have to admit, I’ve only been to Stockholm once, it is a big city, I was traveling to Lulea University. Lulea was beautiful, Stockholm, too crowded for my tastes.
Yeah, Stockholm was kind of laid out as a wheel when central planning really hit home in the 1950s, so everyone in every little suburb (lots and lots of high rise areas built during the 1960s) hops on public transport (the spokes, so to speak) to go into the city centre, making it feel a lot more crowded than it has any reason to.
Even I being a native swede find the city much too "touristy" nowadays.
That's the reason I'm glad I don't live on the mountain 10 minutes from my house. The mountain lions have been known to kill pets. Our neighborhood gets a lot of deer and rabbits, but nothing that would hurt a cat. But we don't let them out at night, either.
theres a ginger tabby in my neighbourhood that if i pet him he wont let me go. if i try to walk away he jumps up at me and runs in front to trip me up!
Suddenly an onion appeared in the crying video. I can't even guess at how many times my kitties have done the very same thing. All of them, even back to my Siamese cat when I was a small child. They always know. When I've been sick and stayed home from work or school = same thing! I'm glad G is better and Bonnie is back. Beeeeg hugs to G and Bonnie!
I feel like I have a higher-than-usual amount of "cat pic avatar" subscribers because I'll chat these people up all the time to hear about their kitties :)
I so love cats; they are just the coolest 😻. I love animals in general and go into heart pounding rage when I hear anything about animal cruelty. I saw a video yesterday of someone dumping a dog by the side of the road, and a man that lives nearby regularly adopts these poor babies as the dumping there is common practice. Another I didn't watch showed a dumper who then ran over the dog.
If I had the money and facilities, I would take every stray in. I still tear up when I think about cats I've lost over the years. My current baby was a rescue from the middle of a 4-lane interstate who caught my eye as I was driving. Apparently she was dumped but wasn't injured except that her paws were raw and bloody from trying to climb the concrete median wall and running. After I got her home, she couldn't even move her hindquarters for a whole day because she was so worn out.
Every time I read one of these cat posts I start itching and have trouble breathing.
Just roared at the CatGPT re Brandon! Biting his tail is the equivalent of "I'd rather eat hair", a saying that makes me crazy. Well done!
Cats are the BEST. Watch Cat Hospital on Acorn TV
SC - Thank you for the B update, G reading?
If you go fishing...you must expect to get wet.
Don't have a cat here for a couple of reasons:
The dogs see cats as prey, going by their behaviour when I walking them down in the village. "Small thing running equals fun"-stance.
There's an abundance of foxes and badgers.
Plus the lynx that prowls the woods around here.
Also, eagles.
People down in the village let their cats roam, and every once in a while one of those cats disappears. It's sad but that's life and the price for living free-er than most cats. Mostly though it's summer guests who loses a cat. Some of those are stupid enough to bring a city cat used to apartment life and then let it roam free. Poor kitty just isn't used to a forest full of things to whom kitty = food.
Trying to explain that to city-people is like telling a mask-cultist masking doesn't work.
Take good care of your animals folks. If you make the calls, then you bear the blame.
We currently have 7 cats. We’ve had 14 strays. I was a dog person until we moved to our farm, now I have cats. In the country, cats aren’t valued, people abandon cats at the end of our driveway so we take care of them when they find our house. Some have been seriously sick. 5 of the currents cats are indoor/outdoor and come in at night (we have coyotes and bobcats) the other 2 stay in the barn. Many of these cats won’t come inside because they are used to being outside. Some have “disappeared”. On this past Friday, the 14th abandoned cat came, he had a red collar with a bell. Clearly someone’s indoor cat. We talked to several neighbors who didn’t know him. We took him to the humane society. We can’t afford anymore cats. Note, if you’re going to abandon a cat, take the collar with the bell off.
You're a nicer person than me, that's for sure. I wouldn't have written:
"...if you’re going to abandon a cat, take the collar with the bell off."
I'd have put it, "...if you're going to abandon a cat or any other animal, stay indoors during hunting season and look twice before crossing the road".
Animals are helpless against us. Therefore we have a moral imperative obligation to not mistreat them, cause undue suffering or destroy their habitats. Animals are innocent; we're not.
I have to wonder, what kind of people living in the countryside doesn't value cats? Arethey all expats from the cities, or do they just love having rats and mice in their barns and outhouses and seed stores?
I don't have cats as mentioned above so I have to buy traps for the mice (no rats here, thnakfully). Problem is, the vixen who claims our lot as part of her turf regularly checks the traps too, the ones she can get at, and if there's anything in it, well she brings it with her. I've found several up on the sloping hill behind the house.
Also, the vipers living here cull the mice population quite nicely, and the European Viper (Vipera berus) is about as venomous as regular bee or wasp; unless you're allergic or a small child at worst you'll have painful burning cramps for a couple of hours.
I like your comments when I read them.
I try to be nice. You get further with sugar…
Where I live, dogs are valued far more. “Working” cats aren’t abandoned, (your defenders of barns, outhouses and feed stores) it’s people who adopt cats and can’t deal with their habits in my opinion, who abandon the cats. I have known city folks who dump the cats in the country because they think they will have a great life on a farm. I just wonder how many of the “tinker bells” haven’t made here…
We don’t have snakes that would kill cats, we have cats that kill snakes, to them they are tasty morsels…
Having cats is like having 8-11 year old children (we have 3 grown children) around. They each can reason like that age range, pretty funny really.
I guess we’re the crazy cat people, aren’t we? Our vet asked if we had a neon “suckers” sign on a tall post at the end of our (mile long) drive.
I think living in too large cities does something to you, especially if you also grow up there and your parents did too, something not very good for ability to understand complex chains of events and causality and also something to your understanding of Nature's nature.
From many city-dwellers, the true urbanites many of whom belong to the caste called "Anywheres" in modern socio-political analysis something seems amiss. A tiny yet important humility before the truth that many things are greater than us and that events and states of being doesn't dance to our wishes and wants.
I know I always felt something missing from me when I lived in Stockholm. No cohesion with others really, not in any natural way. You didn't matter among the teeming hordes. Maybe this is just me. Maybe it's the anomie and alienation described by sociologists when huge cities were starting to become the norm during the 19th century.
That tiny missing piece is what leads to the behaviour and attitude you describe, dumping animals - living feeling beings - just because someone got bored or it didn't "fit with life-style expectations and visions".
I olden days, a farmer mistreating his animals was seen as a Black Mark against him. Cruelty against the helpless upon which he depends on? Such a person is to be watched closely, not trusted and to be shunned as much as decorum permits.
The anonymity of cities breeds contempt and arrogance in equal amounts, I think.
I agree with everything you said.
I have to admit, I’ve only been to Stockholm once, it is a big city, I was traveling to Lulea University. Lulea was beautiful, Stockholm, too crowded for my tastes.
Yeah, Stockholm was kind of laid out as a wheel when central planning really hit home in the 1950s, so everyone in every little suburb (lots and lots of high rise areas built during the 1960s) hops on public transport (the spokes, so to speak) to go into the city centre, making it feel a lot more crowded than it has any reason to.
Even I being a native swede find the city much too "touristy" nowadays.
That's why my cats stay inside.
That's the reason I'm glad I don't live on the mountain 10 minutes from my house. The mountain lions have been known to kill pets. Our neighborhood gets a lot of deer and rabbits, but nothing that would hurt a cat. But we don't let them out at night, either.
theres a ginger tabby in my neighbourhood that if i pet him he wont let me go. if i try to walk away he jumps up at me and runs in front to trip me up!
I think it loves you Ray!
Who in their right mind wouldn't? 😉
Awwwww. The kitten sucking on it's tail. That's so sweet and cute!
I LOVE this! And so glad to hear that G is getting better and Bonnie is spoiled!
Thanks, your Monday missives are always welcome.
Suddenly an onion appeared in the crying video. I can't even guess at how many times my kitties have done the very same thing. All of them, even back to my Siamese cat when I was a small child. They always know. When I've been sick and stayed home from work or school = same thing! I'm glad G is better and Bonnie is back. Beeeeg hugs to G and Bonnie!
Can you tell that I'm a cat person?
Ditto, ditto, ditto.
I feel like I have a higher-than-usual amount of "cat pic avatar" subscribers because I'll chat these people up all the time to hear about their kitties :)
Photo is Chloe - 16 1/2 years old 😸😸😸 Persephone is 11