whenever you have the choice between killing and not killing, not killing is best. keep kitties safe inside, play with them a lot, provide stimulating environments and experiences so they don’t get bored, be a good servant and steward to all the creatures around you.
some cats won’t ever be happy with that, though, and some cat owners can’t provide it. then you have to balance the happiness/misery of the animal whose life you’ve personally taken responsibility for with the dangers and vulnerabilities of your immediate ecosystem, which can differ vastly from country to country, region to region, neighborhood to neighborhood.
gonna paws here to reiterate, keeping kitties inside is best and everyone shld try it wherever feasible
but there’s no pristine ecological system left to preserve, those horses escaped that barn centuries ago, and the barn is on fire and the horses are on fire and everything is on fire and the rising seas will swallow it all up anyway
https://www.britannica.com/science/invasive-species
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/
this is not to abdicate responsibility! even if everything’s burning it’s still morally indefensible to just give up and add to the blaze for the numb nihilism of it. but a dozen ilxors and their pets, strewn across the globe, will have no impact either way.
so hug your cats, spay and neuter your kids, skynet for presidetn 2024
also what is the root of Neando’s rat antipathy, i met a rat once and it was a very nice person
― cat? (cat), Monday, 3 January 2022 21:18 (two years ago) link
https://imgur.com/a/XYhJYft
― cat? (cat), Monday, 3 January 2022 21:22 (two years ago) link
Pele sez go veg
https://imgur.com/a/B7F4Iql
― cat? (cat), Monday, 3 January 2022 21:25 (two years ago) link
also buy four of horses by softer drive, available at a bandcamp near u
https://imgur.com/a/m6Lvd1V
― cat? (cat), Monday, 3 January 2022 21:45 (two years ago) link
FTR I am well aware that when I open a can of cat food for my inside cat, what he's getting is bits of birds and fish who were once alive. Further, I know that I regularly nom on animals. That doesn't mean that letting my cats loose inside the Small Mammal House at the zoo would be okay. There are differences in degree and in kind at play here.
― ; (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 3 January 2022 22:25 (two years ago) link
Now it makes sense why they asked me to leave that zoo
― hrep (H.P), Monday, 3 January 2022 23:53 (two years ago) link
I have an indoor cat and I am vegetarian, hmu if you want me to post an opinion itt
― rob, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 00:12 (two years ago) link
If god had wanted cats indoors hed have made them with little houses already around them imo
The diversion into the morality of veganism in animals is already a strong contender for 2022 best ofs
― pandmac (darraghmac), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 00:15 (two years ago) link
right like church mice and barn owls
― rob, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 00:17 (two years ago) link
precisely
― pandmac (darraghmac), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 00:19 (two years ago) link
opine, rob, opine!!! and post pic of catkin?
― cat? (cat), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 00:25 (two years ago) link
Ya Kid K is back againOutside cats, is it a sin?
― they were written with a ouija board and a rhyming dictionary (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 00:31 (two years ago) link
human habits can foster an oversize population of one animal or another. sometimes we hunt them to prevent a disruption. I guess we don't generally shoot cats with rifles like deer, but we do catch and kill them. keeping your cat inside so it doesn't heathcliff the hood seems a reasonable and compassionate request that has nothing to do with veganism in animals.
― Ssäm Sauce | Martha Stewart (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 00:40 (two years ago) link
All cats guilty until proven innocent does not sound a progressive starting position to me tbh
― pandmac (darraghmac), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 00:43 (two years ago) link
^^this is the case. Each cat has a different level of aggression, different responses to the world around them. I respect all of the arguments brought against inside cats (danger of their death, effect on the environment around them), and I think about these things before deciding to allow my cats outside and only allow them out because in my context I don't see these effects really happening. Obviously I could be blind to the mass destruction they are performing or the death-hound and band of coyotes that secretly live at my neighbours and the 11:30pm traffic rush on my dead-end cul-de-sac that I have never noticed, but hey you gotta roll with the cards you've got and I think the happiness and quality of life they are getting because of their outside privileges is worth it.
Besides, they spend 90% of the day asleep on my bed anyways, lazy bastards.
― hrep (H.P), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 00:59 (two years ago) link
case in point
https://imgur.com/610YcKr
― hrep (H.P), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:03 (two years ago) link
test post, I think this is how you post images.
https://i.imgur.com/610YcKr.jpeg
― hrep (H.P), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:06 (two years ago) link
― cat? (cat), Monday, January 3, 2022 7:25 PM (thirty-four minutes ago)
opinion: people should eat less meat!
pic:
https://imgur.com/myqe2jx
― rob, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:08 (two years ago) link
ah right I did the thing too
https://i.imgur.com/myqe2jx.jpg
― rob, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:10 (two years ago) link
The diversion into the morality of veganism in animals
this was such a badly wrought provocation that you should consider turning in your provocateur's license, deems
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:11 (two years ago) link
What if i agreed to go through an agent
― pandmac (darraghmac), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:12 (two years ago) link
those are both really great pictures
― Dan S, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:18 (two years ago) link
wait did i post mine wrong, did my 3 excellent portraits not show up, should i post them again
many fine cats itt
― cat? (cat), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:23 (two years ago) link
xps - said agent would simply deliver similarly dismal results at one remove
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:24 (two years ago) link
this is important, it’s worth the risk of double posting:
consume veggie
https://i.imgur.com/fLKLLwx.jpg
love music
https://i.imgur.com/986xDef.jpg
https://softerdrive.bandcamp.com/releases
― cat? (cat), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:44 (two years ago) link
I like your smudgy puff
― Dan S, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:49 (two years ago) link
i like her too!!!!!!! very very much!!!!!!!!!!!
https://i.imgur.com/FmJ94bF.jpg
― cat? (cat), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 02:04 (two years ago) link
♥️ ♥️
― Dan S, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 02:07 (two years ago) link
Yowzah!
― (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Razor (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 02:08 (two years ago) link
Everyone get in here and post photos of your cats!
Gus before an arvo beer
https://i.imgur.com/tymdLT0.jpg
Gus after an arvo beer
https://i.imgur.com/F3YJvV1.jpg
― hrep (H.P), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 02:12 (two years ago) link
lol
― Dan S, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 02:13 (two years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/Z5hJm9b.jpg?1
bones is goin outside over my dead body
― Clay, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 02:33 (two years ago) link
would snorgle all this kitties by golly
― cat? (cat), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 02:38 (two years ago) link
bones looks very proper
― Dan S, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 02:54 (two years ago) link
these cats look nice enough, but their looks belie a bird murdering rage
― Ssäm Sauce | Martha Stewart (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 02:58 (two years ago) link
We had one cat who wanted to be an outside cat so desperately. In order to enter the house, you would have to open the door a crack and stick your foot through it to shoo him away and interrupt his escape plans. His escapes were successful a few times. Once, he fell out of a tall tree and ended up with some serious bruising. I tried harness training him, but he never enjoyed it.
The three cats we have now show little interest in going outside, even though two of them were literal strays we rescued from an abandoned house in our neighborhood. They have spent hours trying to get at our parakeets though and once successfully caught one. That bird survives until this day, despite having been plucked from the literal jaws of death. I've bought them feather-chasing toys such as Da Bird and Mystery Motion. Those help a lot with exercising their hunting instincts.
Murder on their minds:https://i.imgur.com/5QZvGMl.jpg
My girl Connie, who I relate to a lot: https://i.imgur.com/RzTRgo6.jpg
― peace, man, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 12:31 (two years ago) link
Here's the two weird ways Oscar has been sleeping lately:
https://i.imgur.com/BTlWHyi.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Afv6j0F.jpg
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 13:21 (two years ago) link
Hmm. Reminds me of someone I know. Nice.
― (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Razor (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 13:21 (two years ago) link
love that this has turned into WDY(cat)LL. my handsome boy Chauncey, contemplating the horrible 'outdoors' with disgust and loathing. if he ever encountered a bird face to face, the bird would surely murder him without trouble.
http://i.imgur.com/4OfV8t7.jpg
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 13:50 (two years ago) link
Also, I'm currently reading the Warriors book series with my daughter. They're chapter books for kids about clans of feral cats who live in the woods and hunt the hell out of birds (in between murdering each other and lots of other general drama). As far as I've read, they have discussed food scarcity issues rising from human encroachments on the environment, but not the depletion of bird populations caused by cats themselves. However, I have some serious catching up to do. Maybe this will be covered in a more recent book.
― peace, man, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 14:02 (two years ago) link
Chauncey is a dapper man.
I had to give up on those Warrior books due to murdering of helpless kittens by rival clans ;_;
― Jaq, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 14:58 (two years ago) link
Warriors, stay in and play
― Ssäm Sauce | Martha Stewart (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 15:01 (two years ago) link
Those are the "kittypets" which must always be said with a vicious sneer.
― Jaq, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 15:07 (two years ago) link
Yeah, it's definitely a brutal series. It's got my kid into reading again though, which she was veering away from for a while.
― peace, man, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 15:14 (two years ago) link
Always a good thing! I started 2021 with it (due to ILXor sunny successor) after a 2020 of not being able to read much, so it got me kick-started as well.
― Jaq, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 16:12 (two years ago) link
On a selfish level, if everyone kept their cats inside, then I wouldn't get to make friends with the cats in my neighbourhood.
We walk our dogs around the block at bedtime, and before our cats got too old and housebound, they used to come with us. It was great. Sometimes, if I was bringing the dogs to the green at the bottom of the road for a little run around in the day, our tom cat Linus would come with us and hang about getting pets from the local kids. He loved to socialize with people. I never liked him being out without me, though. I had to scare the shit out of some kids one day who threw a stone at him when he was chilling in the front garden, minding his own business. I happened to be standing right beside the front door and ran out and ROARED at them. They never came near my house again. I'm lucky they didn't hit him, because if they had I might have really lost my shit at them and then I would've got in trouble.
― trishyb, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 19:39 (two years ago) link
Great photos of Oscar. Give that meaty boy a big ol’ pat from his biggest internet fan, H.P
― hrep (H.P), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 21:09 (two years ago) link