persephonbee:

lookatthisbabybird:

godzillaapproved:

lookatthisbabybird:

godzillaapproved:

lookatthisbabybird:

godzillaapproved:

turings:

turings:

tameness and domestication are not synonymous. a feral cat is not a wild animal just as a tamed bear is not domesticated.

for the record:

• domesticated: an animal that has been bred from its wild species to a more domestic counterpart, generally for a specific purpose. greater production output (plants, sheep), work (horses, dogs), and showing/sport (chickens, canaries) are popular reasons for domestication, and animals are often domesticated for more than one purpose. 

• feral: an animal from a domesticated species, now living in the wild. cats (F. catus), horses (E. f. caballus), and pigeons (C. l. domestica) are some well known species that have established feral populations.

• wild: an animal that is not domesticated, and thus has not adapted to living a life in captivity or alongside humans like a domesticated animal has.

a wild animal can be tame (which is to say, they can be adjusted to human presence and interaction to various degrees) just as a domesticated animal can be feral, but the presence or absence of tameness does not imply anything other than that presence or absence of tameness.

So what are cats? Fucking assholes who defy our human conventions???

Umm, seriously? No. I’m so tired of cats being labelled as “fucking assholes” and such simply because they aren’t dogs and they value their personal space.

Cats basically realized being around humans was beneficial to them, since we like cute furry things, and we fed them, so they stuck around; therefore, they ended up domesticated (this is obviously very simplified).

Cats are not “assholes,” or “rude,” or “mean.” They are cats. Cats are not dogs! They don’t let us touch them when they don’t want or do whatever we want to them, just like humans. They aren’t “assholes” for this, they are just being cats.

Calling an animal an “asshole” or saying they behave like one implies they have a moral compass and a sense of right or wrong, which they do not. They are simply acting like the cats WE bred them to be.

Lol so just because I call them assholes does not mean I don’t love them. I got three as an adult and two as a kid. I am a cat grandma and I love my little shits.

So that hate you think I am sending, you missed the joke and the acknowledgement of how cats really are. They are so very much unattached to us humans and have no problem letting you know it.

• Why are they assholes? Lol because they very very rarely want your attention
• They very very rarely play with the gifts you buy them lol (scratch posts??? Lol more like your wife’s sofas sigh)
• Do they really miss you? No, they are just hungry
• When do they want attention? Of course when you are doing something on the computer!

As a teacher who is very dedicated and gives up a lot of my spare time, the fact that my cats won’t be sad that I am gone makes me happy. They are fine and I am fine with late hours.

I love cats. Cats are fucking awesome. And they are assholes. Lol and I love them for it.

Oh, no, I completely understood that it is a “joke.” As someone with three cats, I am on the receiving end of “haha cats are such assholes, am I right” all the time.

NONE of the things you just described makes an animal an “asshole.” NOTHING makes an animal an asshole, due to the fact that, like I previously said, it implies an animal has a moral compass, and is a form of anthropomorphism. You are expecting things of cats they they do not do or care about. 

• Not wanting your attention does not make an animal an asshole. Do you call people assholes because they don’t always want your attention? No.
• They do not know the “gifts” you buy them are specifically for them. How are they supposed to know that? They are cats. We do not speak each other’s language. Again, nothing here makes the cat an asshole, you are projecting.
• Yes, actually, cats do miss their humans. The “haha cats are just hungry they don’t really love us” trope is generally pushed by people who don’t understand their cat’s body language, or who don’t treat their cats correctly, therefore, no, their cats actually don’t care about them! 
• So what if they want attention when it’s inconvenient for you? How are they supposed to know this? Again, they are cats. They do not know this. They have no ill intent.

I’m sorry to OP for derailing your post, but I’m so, so sick of this mentality towards cats.

You are applying your morals and ideas onto them, which is absolutely ridiculous. You need to take a step back and look at how you are anthropomorphising them. LOTS of people do this, and it is absolutely ridiculous. If you are going to own animal, you NEED to understand it, not just call them an asshole for every single thing they do.

So you are upset with me for calling cats assholes because people who don’t like cats call them that all the time and you are always left having to defend them?

And you do see that we both love cats equally as much?

You can make me wrong all you want…My cats are awesome and I love them no matter what people tell me to feel or think about them. #gatosbeforevatos

I don’t believe you are actually reading what I am saying.

I never, not once, mentioned people who don’t like cats. I am talking about people who own cats, who don’t own cats, and who dislike cats. 

I did not say you don’t love your cats, I said you, and people like you, everyone who calls their cats “assholes” jokingly, needs to evaluate themselves as to why they do it and change this attitude.

They need to look at their cats’ behaviors and realize their cats are not assholes. Cats do not do things with the malicious intent. A cat’s behavior is different than that of a dog’s. They show their affection in different ways, and want attention differently. This does not make them an asshole. This makes them a cat. 

Changing how you see their behaviors, aka not anthropomorphising them and applying human ideas to them, will honestly better your relationship with your cats. It can only help to even just consider what I am saying. 

Also, you’re putting a lot of the burden of the relationship on the cat if you’re sitting there talking in your own language about what you want them to do without actually listening to what they’re saying so you can figure out what they actually want and find a way to meet their needs in ways that you can live with better than what they were previously doing. 

• Your cat isn’t using the scratching post you gave her and is instead scratching your sofa? Your cat is saying that the sofa is more appealing, and more appealing by a big enough margin that it’s worth getting yelled at to use it. What does the sofa have that the scratching post doesn’t? Is the post by the sofa? The sofa is an important part of the cat’s territory and is probably a place with a lot of human scents, almost as much as beds. Maybe your cat prefers the feeling of the upholstery on the sofa. See if you can find a scratching post with that feeling, or even a little piece of furniture from a thrift store that is specifically for the cat to scratch, and when your cat scratches the sofa, pick her up and then put her down by her scratching thing. Maybe even rub catnip on it or and put one of her blankets or something on it.You need to provide a good alternative, and in order to do that, you need to figure out what your cat considers so good about the behavior you want to stop. 
• Your cat probably is happy to see you! They didn’t necessarily miss you because it’s probably been a maximum of 12 hours and if a human didn’t miss you for 12 hours, that wouldn’t make you think they don’t love you. Also, just because they’re hungry doesn’t mean that they aren’t happy to see you for your own sake! They’re hungry and you’re the one who controls the food and you just came home and so they go and say hi and then once they’ve said hi, they request food because they’re hungry. 
• The fact that your cat wants attention when you’re on the computer actually kind of suggests that your cat does enjoy it when you give her attention in the way you do when you’re not on your computer. That doesn’t necessarily mean patting, it can just mean sitting in the same room! When you get absorbed into your computer, they’re like hey wait no keep hanging out with me, i was enjoying the amount of attention we were doing before
• Your cat just doesn’t show affection in the way that a dog does, and they don’t want to receive affection the way a dog does. If you ruffle up a cat’s fur with aggressive petting like you would with a dog, they’re going to get all riled up and maybe snap at you. It’s not that they’re responding to your love with hate, it’s that they’re responding to your irritating semi-attack that led to overstimulation really quickly. So you would need to figure out that this cat prefers pats in one direction on the head and shoulders and at the base of her tail or whatever and then she’ll respond to your love with love because it’ll actually be enjoyable for her! 

Don’t insist that the cat be the only one to make changes. Your cat isn’t doing things for no reason, so you need to provide different things to do to accomplish the same reason.