Look, I have a BA in English with a focus on English Literature. My Literature classes were by far my favorite English classes in uni (barring the one piece of assigned reading I carry hatred in my heart for to this day; fuck you, Jazz). Discussing symbolism and themes and analyzing texts and relating them to the time when they were written is a great time. Really.
So I don’t begrudge anyone trying to figure out what the author is trying to say with this or that line, or what influences might have resulted in it being written. It’s an interesting topic to explore. But. I think drawing our conclusions too firmly is dangerous.
I have a piece of art in my FA gallery that was drawn to illustrate a stupid joke between myself and a colleague on staff. That’s literally the extent of my artistic intentions. We made a joke and I drew it. At one point I was told in no uncertain terms by someone who somehow failed to notice the artist’s name and my name matched, that the artist had obviously drawn it for titillation. Self-titillation, at that. Which. Um. No. Emphatically no.
The suggestion is, due to the exact subject matter, one that comes laced with an undertone of accusation and judgement that I do not appreciate one bit. They backpedaled pretty fast once I pointed out that they were in fact talking to the artist in question, but if they were so certain, how could that retraction really be more than lip service to save face?
So I understand the frustration of people feeling like attempts at analysis of art/writing are treated too dismissively. I also understand why people would get frustrated with such attempts, particularly when they ascribe motives and intentions to the creator.
I don’t know where I was going with this beyond “sometimes intent does need to be considered, and that includes stepping back and thinking about the implications and one’s audience before blurting out that X motif is a definite sign of the creator harboring Y aberrant desires.”
It’s happened over 10 times and at no point have they thought to stop letting him roam so this doesn’t happen. The cat is lucky that it’s something so benign as a haircut as there’s a lot worse that can happen to outdoor cats.
Also I love how this is just a thing that commonly happens to outdoor cats in the UK. I like to think it’s people protesting outdoor cats lmao
Don’t want your cat shaved? Keep it indoors.
Look. I know all about outdoor cat culture. Sweden has a similar problem. But you’re wrong on basically every count:
- Foxes can and will kill cats, and do still exist in the UK. Large birds of prey may also injure or kill small cats. So yes, cats do have natural predators, even in the UK.
- Unnatural predators that outdoor cats may encounter, outside of the above (non-exhaustive list): Cars. Humans. Dogs. They may also enter sheds or garages and get trapped by mistake.
- Believe me, you do not have a large enough back yard for a cat to stay in it. I used to live out in the countryside. One of our cats was (most likely) put down by a neighbor after eating rat poison or a poisoned rat/mouse. By “neighbor” I mean “lived at least a mile or two down the road.” My grandmother lost two cats to the big road that was several yards’ distance from her house. Once our stable cat followed me all the way to the train station a mile away and I had to call my mom to come get her because I was worried about her being so close to the tracks. Cats, and particularly unfixed cats, fucking roam.
- “Only during the day” might seem to work, at first. Until it doesn’t. If the cat decides it doesn’t feel like coming in at night, you’re shit out of luck. Happened to my grandma.
Aside from that, a few more reasons not to let your cat roam unsupervised:
- One of the main threats to the Scottish wildcat, aside from habitat loss, is interbreeding with domestic housecats. Because UK cat owners are letting their unfixed cats roam. If you’re anywhere near their range, you are actively contributing to the extinction of a species if you let your cat out. That’s fucked up.
- Roaming domestic cats have caused or contributed to the extinction of multiple species of small animals. They don’t take into account whether that bird or rodent or butterfly is endangered, if they decide they want to hunt it they will hunt it.
- Disease is spread between outdoor cats when they scrap over territory. Even if your cat manages to avoid other predators it’s virtually guaranteed to run into other cats. Even without communicable diseases like FIV or FeLV, cat bites are really fucking dirty, and a bad bite can land you with, at best, a nasty vet bill. I helped a tenant of my parents’ drain an abscess on one of her cats’s tail, likely caused by a cat bite, every night for at least a week, maybe more, some 16 years ago or so. It was nasty, and the poor thing screamed its head off so it can’t have been pleasant. My (indoor) cat who loved fucking everyone hated this tenant after that. Every time she came inside, the cat would be screaming in pain, so obviously she was bad news, my cat probably figured.
- As I kind of alluded to above, even without malicious intent (and there are people with malicious intent, as well), roaming cats get poisoned. Cats do not have instincts telling them “this is poisonous,” not the way people sometimes think. They can and will eat things that are deathly toxic to them. Hell, lilies are obscenely toxic to cats and people grow them in their gardens. Cat walks through a stand of lilies, gets pollen on it, and grooms itself, and may ingest enough to go into renal failure from that alone, if you’re unlucky. Or it chews on some plant that contains toxins. A mouse or rat or vole dies from or is weakened by rat poison and a hungry outdoor cat decides it looks like a good snack.
Look, there’s a lot of material out there about why you shouldn’t let your cat roam. It’s not hard to find the information. There’s also a ton of information out there about leash training your cat and indoor enrichment. All the excuses for why you (gen) want to let your cat outside, unsupervised, are just that. Excuses.
What’s happened before is in the past. You’re not a bad person for having had outdoor cats before. You’re not even a bad person for currently having one, not even if you for whatever reason aren’t in a position to make the switch to keeping it indoors.
But if you can read about the dangers outdoor cats are exposed to, and the negative ecological impact they pose, and you still want to let your next cat roam free? Yeah, then I’m judging you a little.
honestly like. long term the two most useful subjects i studied in high school were probably cookery & ethics
in ethics class we learned about a view call Emotivism which is the stance that ethnical beliefs aren’t based on reason but rather on people’s emotional reactions. & I remember being like, hm, in practice I do think that’s how most ethical judgements get made, but I don’t think it should be how ethical judgements get made.
periodically I’ll ask myself ‘is this action actually causing any material harm or does it just make me feel bad?’ Because sometimes it’s the latter. it’s an important question to ask yourself, i think.
also in cookery i learned how to make a chocolate swiss roll which is great for impressing ppl
Master blog for the artist/writer/cartoonist/crazy cat lady better known as quoting_mungo. Contains ponies, furries, random pet photos, some art tutorial things, and other silly stuff. Warning! I do curse, quite a bit. If you've got a problem with that, let's part ways now, before I offend you.
