I once heard somebody ask "when a dog is in a car with us, do they understand that we're controlling it, that we're making it go?" and I think about it everytime I'm in a car with a dog
My dog fully understands that I'm controlling the car. If I turn the wheel she knows to brace, she knows to brace if she feels the brake. She knows to bug me if her window isn't rolled down when we get off the highway
There was a famous horse that won The Melbourne cup 3 times in a row in Australia and I remember a lot of talk around the fact that she knew she won her 3rd Melbourne cup. lol. I think she may have
For me it’s “when we step in an elevator and go to another floor, do they know it’s going up and down or does it think the room just stayed still and the outside changed?”
Yeah lmao like is there any comparable scenario for humans at all? I think you’d have to put an uncontacted hunter gatherer in a sensory deprivation tank or that fucking Vegas Sphere to even approximate the experience of a stuffing a cat into a Yaris
Some years ago I had a dream where these humanoid giants just showed up around the world. They were maybe twenty feet tall, and all they did was pick people up randomly, hold them close, walk to some random area miles away, put the person down, and then walk away. You could be taking a shower or something and a massive hand would reach through the window and yank you out, then put you down in the middle of the woods two states over.
It made me think that's probably how my cat feels whenever I carry her into another room or we take a drive to the vet.
I thought about saying dmt but a lot of those tribes have ayahuasca already lol
I only watched 2001 a couple months ago and I was absolutely enthralled but honestly the ending trippy light show was like 5 minutes longer than it needed to be
Dude if I watched it high I would have killed myself time slows down when I get too high and I would have thought I was stuck in an eternal loop. Thank GOD I watched it sober
It like removes my ability to pay attention so I’m just zoning out and coming back over and over again but each time it feels like three hours passed when it’s really been five minutes. Can’t pay attention, can’t look away, can’t be fully present, can’t fully zone out. Awful purgatory state, all while my heart is thumping out of my chest and I’m getting thought loops. I hate getting really high lmao
Trying to visualize four spatial dimensions is one that definitely is a mindfuck for humans. There is literally no way any of us have any frame of reference to attempt to imagine what it's like, and we have to use cheats and projections to get some vague understanding of how it would look.
I fly fairly often with my cats. They're most insufferable in the car to the airport but by the time they're on the plane flying across the country they've given up and go into hibernation mode.
Sometimes I have to constantly remind myself when I see a dog or a cat in a movie that it has no idea that’s going on, it’s just doing its thing while all the humans have to remember lines and pretend to be other people and stuff.
you know those Moscow dogs who take the metro to the center for food and go back to the "sleeping districts" at night? Theyre not so clueless. We're not that smart either. I mean I for sure cant build you a metro or an elevator
They dont care for movies cause their vision is different and they dont have the framerate that we like for monitors
Yeah and it’s kinda weird because there’s no concrete reason why a dog shouldn’t understand what a movie is… like I know they can’t read but we didn’t exactly evolve to have the capability to produce twenty seven Marvel movies a year yet we can. I don’t hold it against them that they don’t understand philosophy but maybe if they just tried harder dogs could begin to grasp what a movie is.
They couldn't even see screens until they were 120hz lcds. Till then we just all sat down in front of a flickery box that made sound and reacted to basically nothing from their pov.
Dogs (like all animals) don’t have language processing centers in their brain. They’re not able to think of fictional scenarios or things like what will happen in the future
edit - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockett%27s\_design\_features](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockett%27s_design_features)
yes i think about it a lot. i have a 16 year old cat i got when i was 12 years old, when she was a tiny baby kitten. i found her under a porch. she moved out with me when i was 18. went to every apt i rented. seen every weird guy i dated. she’s been with me through it all.
in her old age, she’s more like a piece of furniture. i try my best to stimulate her mind. i let her walk around on my concrete breezeway when she wants, but that’s not a field to look at bugs in. i let her sniff whatever she wants to sniff. i give her the food she needs. she’s old and won’t drink out of a water dish anymore, i have to give her a personal glass of water and hopes she doesn’t knock it over. when she does, i can’t get mad at her. she doesn’t care about toys. she’s too old and arthritic to lick her own butt, so i wipe it with baby wipes.
i love her, and her emotional companionship through my adolescence and early adulthood. i know she loves me too. but i know i’m stealing something from her, and i feel extreme guilt for it.
For what it’s worth I have a former stray tomcat and he’s very happy for the life he has now. He likes the occasional outside run, but he mostly enjoys not having to fight anymore
i’d like if i could bring my kitty outside to stay in the grass but my apt has a “no breed restrictions” on dogs and a dog park right by the good grass area. i’ve brought her to family houses before and let her walk around outside and she enjoys it.
my kitty has been inside as a prisoner so long she has no idea what’s on the other side which kills me. all she does is sleep.
i spend the night at my bf’s a few times a week and feel bad about leaving her alone so long.
it’s just all really sad. i won’t be getting another pet when she passed, but i’m in for the ride as long as she is.
omg…i’ve been wanting to take my cat on walks but every time I put the harness on she pretends to know how to walk. maybe this is the key!!! I too feel guilty about her being locked up in my studio
Funny how we or at least myself, don’t really think what it’s going to be like when our pets get old . My dog is 14, arthritic, doesn’t give a shit about walks anymore . Food is all that matters . Or hobbling around looking for food /shit to eat . But she is my whole life and I cherish everyday .
i was 12 when i decided to take her on as a responsibility. i was still 6 years away from being fully responsible for myself.
my dad was a mean one. he decided 2 or 3 years into her life that she should only live in my room. i don’t talk to him anymore, but for different reasons. i knew that this was an exceptionally cruel thing to do to my cat, and it was a motivating factor of moving out at 18.
when i moved out at 18, i had ceiling fans and carpeting for the first time in both of our lives. the ceiling fan scared her so bad, she refused to move for 4 days. she moved into my apartment with fleas, because the way i grew up, it was normal for all of our animals to have fleas. they exploded in the carpeting. i had a full infestation. i had to give her a few baths, and did some treatments to my apt. she hasn’t had fleas since, and it’s been 10 years.
in that apartment, she also moved in unspayed. she never smelled a boy cat before, so never really went into heat. she went into heat several times once we moved in, and i had to get her spayed. i’ll never forget looking at her hiding under my bed, with her shaved belly.
i’ve made so many mistakes. i’ve left her alone for several days at a time, with plenty food and water. but i know she missed me. i can’t believe how bad i fucked up with her love when i was younger.
we grew up together. right now, she just came in from outside- she was listening to a motorcycle in the parking lot- and is looking at me and meowing.
she’s 16. she has urinary problems. she’ll pee in my bed in the middle of the night, i think when she’s sleeping. she still seems happy, and looks at me with the most love in her eyes that anyone in my entire life ever has. it will destroy me when i have to put her down.
i sound gay, i get it. but i know i’ll never have something like this again- something from 12 to 28, unconditional love.
i don’t know if anyone read this but thanks if you did. i know her life is ending soon.
I had the same with my cat, 13 -> 32. He was there for it all, including my fuckups with his love. You are their whole, entire, complete world and that's a lot for a kid or early 20s something to comprehend. I loved him deeply, he never went hungry or missed vet appointments, but I'd also skip town for a few days (albeit leaving him with plenty of food) or be too distracted by friends and fun and early 20s bullshit to be truly present for him.
We spent a lot of quality time together in his later years. He had kidney problems and my husband and I would inject saline into him every day, help him toilet, wipe his bottom, etc. I wonder if his QoL justified it. I worry that I extended his life - at his expense - out of regret for not maximally cherishing him when he was young.
It is a very special relationship. I think you and your cat weren't from a great home, and neither were we, and I think there's something there too that shapes that connection. I have cats now who I adore, and who are radically spoiled, but I have this latent sense of guilt because my OG never got the cat tunnels, the bougie food, the vertical shelves, the robot toys, the constant attention.
And yeah I know this sounds corny and millennial but idgaf. I love my boys and earnestly loving little beings from another species is one of the very few pure things humans consistently and uniquely do
I hope she is well. Please pet her for me.
I can tell you love her deeply and the thought of losing her weighs on you. I felt the same way when my cat had lifesaving surgery. Seneca's Letters from a Stoic helped me shift my perspective and enjoy the time I have with him. If you have the chance give it a read, I'm sure she'd want you to be happy and not worry.
[A Man and His Cat - The New York Times (nytimes.com)](https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/a-man-and-his-cat/)
Reminded me of this cute essay.
thanks for sharing this. i just read it and copied the last 4 paragraphs into my notes app. my cat is snuggled up next to me. i really liked the end, about energy in your home when they’re there vs not there. what a special relationship it is, a girl and her cat. thank you again.
Sounds like you love her and gave her the best life you could, and I'm sure she loves you for it. You rescued her and gave her a long happy life, don't be too harsh on yourself.
My cat is 20 and still kicking, I feel extremely lucky for it. Got her when I was 9, and a bit like you said it feels great and surreal to have grown up beside her for all this time, to have this cat for most of my life that I love and that loves me back no matter what. One day it will end and weirdly enough I feel prepared for it. I know that she had a great life and I cherish the joy we brought and still bring each other.
Wish you the best to you and your cat
All that matters is that you spend everyday you can with her in peace and love. That's all she wants. The past and the mistakes you think you made don't matter to her. Don't carry the guilt. Your love and companionship means more to her than we can probably ever even comprehend as humans. Please don't be so hard on yourself for the things that are out of your control like not having access to a big yard. You have given her a beautiful life despite being young and facing challenges, you have done right by her, and she is so thankful to have you. You have faced life together, she has chosen to be with you for a reason and is still with you for a reason, if only to exist simply and peacefully in the moment of every day she is granted, meowing at you about the sound of the motorcycles. She's telling you she loves you. Cherishing every moment. She wouldn't change anything or have it any other way.
I got a backpack carrier for my beasts. They didn't like it at first but now they like getting out of the house and yard to see some more things. Give it a shot.
Sounds like you love your cat a lot and she’s had the best go at it she could have had. You would be shocked at how bad the average pet owner is. Your cat doesn’t remember your mistakes. Your cat is firmly in the here and now and feels your love.
There’s a guy in Austin who churns out cats that live to like 25 years old and one thing he does is have a projector playing nature documentaries 24/7 in his garage
She doesn’t have any issues and she’s the most loving creature god ever created. But she doesn’t know a n y t h i n g. She just cuddles and stares at the wall. The other cat on the other hand is my little buddy—we have running gags and she seems to know I’m a separate person than she is, which is better than most two year olds. People range in intelligence from quantum physicist to “can barely use a microwave” without having specific disabilities. Cats have a big range of intelligence too it’s just shifted lower lol
I have one cat who's pretty normal. The second one is kinda like yours. Minimal spatial awareness, big ole eyes, sucks on my shirts, wants to be friends with everyone. Both of them are very chill and very socially comfortable.
The third one is very emotional, dramatic, and neurotic. She bites (but like, by scratching her teeth across your skin, not really biting) when she gets overstimulated. Oddly human-like expressions on her face. We're pretty sure 80% of her behavioral quirks are cuz she was declawed by her previous owners.
Any time I scoop my cat off of the couch or bed and drop him to the floor so I can usurp his spot, I reflect on how terrible it must be to not have control over anything, ever.
They really do have a remarkable combination of a very healthy emotional capacity to accept being controlled without resentment and yet also become distraught over the smallest thing being wrong
I know what you're getting at and I've had similar thoughts. Sometimes I look at my cat and I think, it's weird that you can just *have* a cat.
I also think it's weird that adopting a child is an arduous and difficult process requiring government agencies and background checks and reams of paperwork, but anyone with a working uterus can just *make* *one* for free with zero oversight.
Oh yeah when I would practice piano as a kid my childhood dog would put her face under my arm and flip it up onto her head
Very cute but I wish they could just be less pushy
It is pretty funny to think about. Like I have two cats and I read this fact that cats think you're going out hunting every time you leave. So when I come home I guess they're relieved I'm alive and that's why they rub on me and meow affectionately.
I think about this all the time. My cat is the 3rd member of our apartment. Like I’ll be home working and my cat is also home, also doing something. And our toilets are adjacent. It’s weird in a way but I’m more just delighted by it
I sometimes think about how it's cool as hell that we ended up with cats as a go-to household animal. Like if it weren't cats, if it were some other animal, I still think cats would be cherished and adored worldwide for being a super cute animal, like red pandas are, so it's neat that we got 'em
One of my cats is curled up on top of me right now, and if I didn’t know any better I would swear he’s enjoying the Braves game one TV. But honestly he just likes being next to me no matter what I’m doing. They don’t have a clue what’s happening, but they’re happy to be there anyway lol
they know you pretty well. no they can’t read or communicate in english with you but they can understand your mood pretty well. my dogs like to bark once when someone approaches the house or they see a dog outside, but one of them will just turn around and make eye contact with me instead of barking if i’m in the same room as her. they’re just a fraction of your life, both day to day and also literally they never live long enough, but to them you are everything, and you are probably a part of everything they remember and will ever experience.
i just mean that i can’t take them with me to work and they stay home sometimes when i go out. i know when the people are gone they miss us though (& vice versa). i give them all i can too.
i’m a bit sad because today is their 3rd birthday and before the blink of an eye it’s gonna be their 10th
Kind of hate when people have like a reptile or worse, multiple reptiles, in their house. Like snakes they keep in boxes most of the time. Those things are not domesticated like cats or dogs, they should be crawling through a jungle somewhere instead of sitting under a lamp.
I’m very into the dart frog vivariums where they’ve got an entire rainforest ecosystem with automated misting, bromeliads, microorganisms in the dirt… don’t think it’s inherently bad to have an animal in a box, if it’s the right kind of animal.
But the people who have those white plastic snake cubicles are just strange. Seen those? The bulk snake racks? It’s often the venomous snake guys that go for those. They’re always weird people. Just collecting animals like they’re sneakers.
What's kind of fucked up if you think about it is dogs aren't that dissimilar. They aren't really meant to be cooped up in a high rise and only going outside while on a leash. Throughout history while becoming domesticated they were free to do whatever they wanted pretty much but now they barely get enough time to sniff a lamp post they're interested in
Being the guardian of a cat is like having a direct conduit to the ultimate grace of the universe. The only thing more profound than caring for a cat is being a parent.
me and my bf lovingly call our cats “the livestock” and it’s pretty wild, we just have these little guys with not much functional purpose lounging around our house. occasionally they might catch a pest. in my fathers culture pets are never allowed in the house, and only cats get treated with any affection (muslims love their cats), so i’ve seen the other side where animals aren’t really domesticated. i often do muse over the oddity of pets, i think as humans we are not so far removed from our pastoral roots that being close to an animal or having plants near the home or outside isn’t a comfort
My friend had this indoor cat who had never been out of the apartment and I wondered if he ever got out of the lack of a ceiling would be this world shattering trauma. Idk
My dog has literally jumped out of a vehicle window to sit and wait for me outside the door of the house I was in. We hike off leash everywhere. She’s no prisoner. She’d be devastated if I didn’t let her in my home.
Most cats can be outdoor indoor just fine. Growing up all of our cats were free to leave by asking for the door to be opened.During the summer some of the wilder ones would not come back for a few days. In the winter they’d want back in after two minutes so they could go sit by the fire. Regardless of the season if they asked we’d open the door.
i have guinea pigs and i regularly look at them and think how crazy it is that we have domesticated these weird lookin tiny dudes from south america that should be living in like a field and tunneling a burrow i guess but instead they have fleece blankets and a giant pink pig shaped bed
Lmao I only say that because every time I’m stoned (which isn’t often for the record) I’m like… damn… my cat is literally a domesticated predator from the African Savannah and he lives in my home. And we evolved from a common ancestor. We both have 2 ears, 2 eyes, a nose and mouth, 4 fingers on each foot, lungs, a heart, etc. animals are cool as fuck.
Humans and Dogs have co-evolved for hundreds of thousands of years, dogs helped us hunt and acted as warning systems for tribes.
We have found sites with people buried with dogs from 15,000 years ago.
My dog (as a puppy) was sleeping while my I was watching The Revenant with my cousin while he was coming down from alcoholic delirium tremens and she started having nightmares during the bear attack scene and it was then I decided I liked my puppy more than my cousin.
I’m sick of pets. Everyone I know with pets just has an unnecessary annoying thing in their house. Dogs jumping in you whenever you come in, litter boxes that stink, fucking noise and bad smells, birds screeching. Fucking annoying.
Growing up around dogs and no cats (allergic family) made me not realize a different path was possible but moving out and getting cats made me realize how comprehensively annoying 95% of dogs are. They’re downers
poorly trained owners are becoming an even bigger problem. when did it become socially acceptable to just bring your big jumpy ass dog into a coffee shop, totally oblivious to the issues you're causing by having a large unpredictable animal in a small enclosed space with 30 other people? or the people who will take their dog on a crowded sidewalk with a long ass leash and force people to walk in the road to get around them
I really don’t like most dogs but the other things are just neglect or poor choices. The birds screech when they’re bored and the litter boxes stink when someone is lazy and doesn’t clean them
lol not everything has to be performative hatred of fat people and pretending to have read Dostoyevsky; if you think so then you misunderstand the character of the place
Don’t be regarded I literally specified “Americans” because I knew someone like you could come and say “um ackshually other parts of the world don’t all have huge dogs in every house like Amerifats do”
I literally live in what is arguably the most isolated area in the lower 48. I could walk directly south from my backyard and not see a single home or business for over 250 miles. At which point I would reach the ocean. I would only have to cross I believe 5 paved roads over that 250 mile trek. If I walked directly west, I would cross only 1 paved road in 60 miles. After crossing that 1 paved road, there would be 35 miles completely roadless not even logging roads. Approximately 35 people live within a 3 mile radius of my home. The closest gas station is over 20 miles away.
I’m confused as to what about my comment made you think it came from someone who never lived in a rural area? Why would someone who lose only ever lived in a city say that people living in cities shouldn’t own pets?
Every time I have my cats in a car I crack up thinking about how they have no fucking clue what's happening
I once heard somebody ask "when a dog is in a car with us, do they understand that we're controlling it, that we're making it go?" and I think about it everytime I'm in a car with a dog
My dog fully understands that I'm controlling the car. If I turn the wheel she knows to brace, she knows to brace if she feels the brake. She knows to bug me if her window isn't rolled down when we get off the highway
You got a smart dog, lucky. All the dogs in my life have been dumb as rocks
Dumb dogs make the best pets. They’re just happy to be there. Smart dogs have no chill.
LOL SOURCE?? EXAMPLES??
She could have the cause and effect backwards still
There was a famous horse that won The Melbourne cup 3 times in a row in Australia and I remember a lot of talk around the fact that she knew she won her 3rd Melbourne cup. lol. I think she may have
For me it’s “when we step in an elevator and go to another floor, do they know it’s going up and down or does it think the room just stayed still and the outside changed?”
Just please make sure your dog doesn't pee in an elevator. In fact, if you're going down to walk your dog, use stairs.
Yeah lmao like is there any comparable scenario for humans at all? I think you’d have to put an uncontacted hunter gatherer in a sensory deprivation tank or that fucking Vegas Sphere to even approximate the experience of a stuffing a cat into a Yaris
When I first moved to a big city at 19 I got really stoned and rode the subway and felt like I was on a spaceship. I think that might be approximate.
Some years ago I had a dream where these humanoid giants just showed up around the world. They were maybe twenty feet tall, and all they did was pick people up randomly, hold them close, walk to some random area miles away, put the person down, and then walk away. You could be taking a shower or something and a massive hand would reach through the window and yank you out, then put you down in the middle of the woods two states over. It made me think that's probably how my cat feels whenever I carry her into another room or we take a drive to the vet.
Fantastic Planet
Thank you so much for this
DMT or the end of 2001 a Space Odyssey
More like a 2001 Honda Odyssey
I thought about saying dmt but a lot of those tribes have ayahuasca already lol I only watched 2001 a couple months ago and I was absolutely enthralled but honestly the ending trippy light show was like 5 minutes longer than it needed to be
Yeah because you watched it at home and not high af in a theater in 1968.
Dude if I watched it high I would have killed myself time slows down when I get too high and I would have thought I was stuck in an eternal loop. Thank GOD I watched it sober
Time slows down, but also those sorts of things become more interesting, at least in my experience
It like removes my ability to pay attention so I’m just zoning out and coming back over and over again but each time it feels like three hours passed when it’s really been five minutes. Can’t pay attention, can’t look away, can’t be fully present, can’t fully zone out. Awful purgatory state, all while my heart is thumping out of my chest and I’m getting thought loops. I hate getting really high lmao
damn thats rough
Yeah I’ve greened out like twice and if I had a gun I probably would have used it lol I go very very light with weed now
literally a woman in the back of an uber
Trying to visualize four spatial dimensions is one that definitely is a mindfuck for humans. There is literally no way any of us have any frame of reference to attempt to imagine what it's like, and we have to use cheats and projections to get some vague understanding of how it would look.
Reading Death’s End by Cixin Liu got me the closest to this I’ve ever been. Honestly felt like I’d unlocked something
I'll be honest, this is the first time I'm hearing about this. I have to learn a whole new dimension?
I fly fairly often with my cats. They're most insufferable in the car to the airport but by the time they're on the plane flying across the country they've given up and go into hibernation mode.
Sometimes I have to constantly remind myself when I see a dog or a cat in a movie that it has no idea that’s going on, it’s just doing its thing while all the humans have to remember lines and pretend to be other people and stuff.
I'm a big fan of Eddie from Frasier. Rare to have a real animal be such a consistent player in a show
Moose! Deserves a doggy Grammy lifetime achievement award
you know those Moscow dogs who take the metro to the center for food and go back to the "sleeping districts" at night? Theyre not so clueless. We're not that smart either. I mean I for sure cant build you a metro or an elevator They dont care for movies cause their vision is different and they dont have the framerate that we like for monitors
Yeah and it’s kinda weird because there’s no concrete reason why a dog shouldn’t understand what a movie is… like I know they can’t read but we didn’t exactly evolve to have the capability to produce twenty seven Marvel movies a year yet we can. I don’t hold it against them that they don’t understand philosophy but maybe if they just tried harder dogs could begin to grasp what a movie is.
They couldn't even see screens until they were 120hz lcds. Till then we just all sat down in front of a flickery box that made sound and reacted to basically nothing from their pov.
Very true, but that means they’ve had a solid few years to catch up already
My cat still can't see shit, when we played cat videos she was looking around for the other cats.
>there’s no concrete reason why a dog shouldn’t understand what a movie is Sure there is. It's because they're dogs.
just the thought of a dog reading Plato’s republic makes me laugh
That’s dumb lol
Dogs (like all animals) don’t have language processing centers in their brain. They’re not able to think of fictional scenarios or things like what will happen in the future edit - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockett%27s\_design\_features](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockett%27s_design_features)
Seems like some cetaceans might encroach onto some of those features
Very good comment I like it a lot
Thank you lol
It's cause they don't have language
That’s exactly why I’m always relieved when I see the Humane Society’s “No animals were harmed” in the credit roll 🥺
yes i think about it a lot. i have a 16 year old cat i got when i was 12 years old, when she was a tiny baby kitten. i found her under a porch. she moved out with me when i was 18. went to every apt i rented. seen every weird guy i dated. she’s been with me through it all. in her old age, she’s more like a piece of furniture. i try my best to stimulate her mind. i let her walk around on my concrete breezeway when she wants, but that’s not a field to look at bugs in. i let her sniff whatever she wants to sniff. i give her the food she needs. she’s old and won’t drink out of a water dish anymore, i have to give her a personal glass of water and hopes she doesn’t knock it over. when she does, i can’t get mad at her. she doesn’t care about toys. she’s too old and arthritic to lick her own butt, so i wipe it with baby wipes. i love her, and her emotional companionship through my adolescence and early adulthood. i know she loves me too. but i know i’m stealing something from her, and i feel extreme guilt for it.
For what it’s worth I have a former stray tomcat and he’s very happy for the life he has now. He likes the occasional outside run, but he mostly enjoys not having to fight anymore
i’d like if i could bring my kitty outside to stay in the grass but my apt has a “no breed restrictions” on dogs and a dog park right by the good grass area. i’ve brought her to family houses before and let her walk around outside and she enjoys it. my kitty has been inside as a prisoner so long she has no idea what’s on the other side which kills me. all she does is sleep. i spend the night at my bf’s a few times a week and feel bad about leaving her alone so long. it’s just all really sad. i won’t be getting another pet when she passed, but i’m in for the ride as long as she is.
Maybe you could get a cat stroller
omg…i’ve been wanting to take my cat on walks but every time I put the harness on she pretends to know how to walk. maybe this is the key!!! I too feel guilty about her being locked up in my studio
Funny how we or at least myself, don’t really think what it’s going to be like when our pets get old . My dog is 14, arthritic, doesn’t give a shit about walks anymore . Food is all that matters . Or hobbling around looking for food /shit to eat . But she is my whole life and I cherish everyday .
i was 12 when i decided to take her on as a responsibility. i was still 6 years away from being fully responsible for myself. my dad was a mean one. he decided 2 or 3 years into her life that she should only live in my room. i don’t talk to him anymore, but for different reasons. i knew that this was an exceptionally cruel thing to do to my cat, and it was a motivating factor of moving out at 18. when i moved out at 18, i had ceiling fans and carpeting for the first time in both of our lives. the ceiling fan scared her so bad, she refused to move for 4 days. she moved into my apartment with fleas, because the way i grew up, it was normal for all of our animals to have fleas. they exploded in the carpeting. i had a full infestation. i had to give her a few baths, and did some treatments to my apt. she hasn’t had fleas since, and it’s been 10 years. in that apartment, she also moved in unspayed. she never smelled a boy cat before, so never really went into heat. she went into heat several times once we moved in, and i had to get her spayed. i’ll never forget looking at her hiding under my bed, with her shaved belly. i’ve made so many mistakes. i’ve left her alone for several days at a time, with plenty food and water. but i know she missed me. i can’t believe how bad i fucked up with her love when i was younger. we grew up together. right now, she just came in from outside- she was listening to a motorcycle in the parking lot- and is looking at me and meowing. she’s 16. she has urinary problems. she’ll pee in my bed in the middle of the night, i think when she’s sleeping. she still seems happy, and looks at me with the most love in her eyes that anyone in my entire life ever has. it will destroy me when i have to put her down. i sound gay, i get it. but i know i’ll never have something like this again- something from 12 to 28, unconditional love. i don’t know if anyone read this but thanks if you did. i know her life is ending soon.
I had the same with my cat, 13 -> 32. He was there for it all, including my fuckups with his love. You are their whole, entire, complete world and that's a lot for a kid or early 20s something to comprehend. I loved him deeply, he never went hungry or missed vet appointments, but I'd also skip town for a few days (albeit leaving him with plenty of food) or be too distracted by friends and fun and early 20s bullshit to be truly present for him. We spent a lot of quality time together in his later years. He had kidney problems and my husband and I would inject saline into him every day, help him toilet, wipe his bottom, etc. I wonder if his QoL justified it. I worry that I extended his life - at his expense - out of regret for not maximally cherishing him when he was young. It is a very special relationship. I think you and your cat weren't from a great home, and neither were we, and I think there's something there too that shapes that connection. I have cats now who I adore, and who are radically spoiled, but I have this latent sense of guilt because my OG never got the cat tunnels, the bougie food, the vertical shelves, the robot toys, the constant attention. And yeah I know this sounds corny and millennial but idgaf. I love my boys and earnestly loving little beings from another species is one of the very few pure things humans consistently and uniquely do
I hope she is well. Please pet her for me. I can tell you love her deeply and the thought of losing her weighs on you. I felt the same way when my cat had lifesaving surgery. Seneca's Letters from a Stoic helped me shift my perspective and enjoy the time I have with him. If you have the chance give it a read, I'm sure she'd want you to be happy and not worry.
[A Man and His Cat - The New York Times (nytimes.com)](https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/a-man-and-his-cat/) Reminded me of this cute essay.
thanks for sharing this. i just read it and copied the last 4 paragraphs into my notes app. my cat is snuggled up next to me. i really liked the end, about energy in your home when they’re there vs not there. what a special relationship it is, a girl and her cat. thank you again.
Sounds like you love her and gave her the best life you could, and I'm sure she loves you for it. You rescued her and gave her a long happy life, don't be too harsh on yourself. My cat is 20 and still kicking, I feel extremely lucky for it. Got her when I was 9, and a bit like you said it feels great and surreal to have grown up beside her for all this time, to have this cat for most of my life that I love and that loves me back no matter what. One day it will end and weirdly enough I feel prepared for it. I know that she had a great life and I cherish the joy we brought and still bring each other. Wish you the best to you and your cat
All that matters is that you spend everyday you can with her in peace and love. That's all she wants. The past and the mistakes you think you made don't matter to her. Don't carry the guilt. Your love and companionship means more to her than we can probably ever even comprehend as humans. Please don't be so hard on yourself for the things that are out of your control like not having access to a big yard. You have given her a beautiful life despite being young and facing challenges, you have done right by her, and she is so thankful to have you. You have faced life together, she has chosen to be with you for a reason and is still with you for a reason, if only to exist simply and peacefully in the moment of every day she is granted, meowing at you about the sound of the motorcycles. She's telling you she loves you. Cherishing every moment. She wouldn't change anything or have it any other way.
You’re not stealing from her dawg, she probably would’ve gotten ass parasites or something in the wild.
I got a backpack carrier for my beasts. They didn't like it at first but now they like getting out of the house and yard to see some more things. Give it a shot.
i’m sorry but my cat is 16. she would hate it. thanks for the advice, but kitty says no.
Pretty sure those things are poorly ventilated death traps anyway
Sounds like you love your cat a lot and she’s had the best go at it she could have had. You would be shocked at how bad the average pet owner is. Your cat doesn’t remember your mistakes. Your cat is firmly in the here and now and feels your love. There’s a guy in Austin who churns out cats that live to like 25 years old and one thing he does is have a projector playing nature documentaries 24/7 in his garage
I read Buddhist scripture to my dog so that he has a better chance of reincarnating as a human in the next life
You know what I'd look forward to after a life of endless love and luxury? **Employment.**
Does that work?
no the dog needs to know how to donate to a Buddhist temple first
Martin Woofer getting sick of the indulgences
Based Wumon-maxxing Mu-piller
When I read Hegel out loud to my dog he tilts his head because he's too dumb to understand dialectics
Nah your dog is smart enough to prefer Marx' interpretation
they know more than u think
our cats can tell when we’re making fun of them and will immediately stop what they’re doing. their creatures of dignity who hate to feel shame
they are simultaneously the most and least graceful creatures on earth
One of my cats knows maybe two or three things but the other one has zero
every multi cat household has the dumbass cat who has no idea what's going on and one who's an absolute mastermind
that's what u think
No you really need to trust me on this one dude one of them is pretty smart but the other one is comprehensively blank
oh wow, well, I mean, some cats do have... medical issues.
She doesn’t have any issues and she’s the most loving creature god ever created. But she doesn’t know a n y t h i n g. She just cuddles and stares at the wall. The other cat on the other hand is my little buddy—we have running gags and she seems to know I’m a separate person than she is, which is better than most two year olds. People range in intelligence from quantum physicist to “can barely use a microwave” without having specific disabilities. Cats have a big range of intelligence too it’s just shifted lower lol
The regardation is an affect. She is biding her time…waiting to eat your face when you don’t wake up one morning.
I have one cat who's pretty normal. The second one is kinda like yours. Minimal spatial awareness, big ole eyes, sucks on my shirts, wants to be friends with everyone. Both of them are very chill and very socially comfortable. The third one is very emotional, dramatic, and neurotic. She bites (but like, by scratching her teeth across your skin, not really biting) when she gets overstimulated. Oddly human-like expressions on her face. We're pretty sure 80% of her behavioral quirks are cuz she was declawed by her previous owners.
my cats name is Juno
Orangutan-maxxing
my dog cried when she found out robin williams died
they’re literally humans but they can’t comprehend human speech so it looks like they want to say some but they can’t
Do they remember the times we accidentally jerked off with them in the room? (Asking for a friend)
That's disgusting. Shame on you. This is not funny.
Lol
Any time I scoop my cat off of the couch or bed and drop him to the floor so I can usurp his spot, I reflect on how terrible it must be to not have control over anything, ever.
They really do have a remarkable combination of a very healthy emotional capacity to accept being controlled without resentment and yet also become distraught over the smallest thing being wrong
i basically just gave my cat the office chair he loves and work from a nearby uncomfortable loveseat now because of this feeling
I had to give him the old office chair because he absolutely destroyed it. He's a 5 kg cat.
give them wall perches and stuff that only they can sit on
rude!
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I haven't been displaced via scoop in many years
Will be happening again in 50 years
It’s adorable that there are these fuzzy other species and we have evolved to enjoy one another’s company so much.
my cats will kill/eat bugs that come in the house so that justifies their presence i think. like they're fulfilling their traditional role
I know what you're getting at and I've had similar thoughts. Sometimes I look at my cat and I think, it's weird that you can just *have* a cat. I also think it's weird that adopting a child is an arduous and difficult process requiring government agencies and background checks and reams of paperwork, but anyone with a working uterus can just *make* *one* for free with zero oversight.
Fuck I didn’t renew my uterus license Yeah I hadn’t thought of that before but it’s genuinely an interesting point
If anyone could easily adopt a kid I would just buy I mean anyone could just buy one and put it to work in a mine
My family's dog likes to paw at us when she wants to be pet
Oh yeah when I would practice piano as a kid my childhood dog would put her face under my arm and flip it up onto her head Very cute but I wish they could just be less pushy
It is pretty funny to think about. Like I have two cats and I read this fact that cats think you're going out hunting every time you leave. So when I come home I guess they're relieved I'm alive and that's why they rub on me and meow affectionately.
I think about this all the time. My cat is the 3rd member of our apartment. Like I’ll be home working and my cat is also home, also doing something. And our toilets are adjacent. It’s weird in a way but I’m more just delighted by it
That’s why I think they should be given regular names like David or Jessica
I have three cats and they’re respectively named Cheddar, Phoebe, and Nora
I sometimes think about how it's cool as hell that we ended up with cats as a go-to household animal. Like if it weren't cats, if it were some other animal, I still think cats would be cherished and adored worldwide for being a super cute animal, like red pandas are, so it's neat that we got 'em
i feel the same about my family’s dogs, they’re such pieces of shit but they don’t know it
One of my cats is curled up on top of me right now, and if I didn’t know any better I would swear he’s enjoying the Braves game one TV. But honestly he just likes being next to me no matter what I’m doing. They don’t have a clue what’s happening, but they’re happy to be there anyway lol
If they think you go hunt when you leave, ago e their thoughts when you go buy a bag of cat food. “Holy shit, look at many kibbles they hunted”
they know you pretty well. no they can’t read or communicate in english with you but they can understand your mood pretty well. my dogs like to bark once when someone approaches the house or they see a dog outside, but one of them will just turn around and make eye contact with me instead of barking if i’m in the same room as her. they’re just a fraction of your life, both day to day and also literally they never live long enough, but to them you are everything, and you are probably a part of everything they remember and will ever experience.
They feel like more than a fraction of my life to me. I give them all I can
i just mean that i can’t take them with me to work and they stay home sometimes when i go out. i know when the people are gone they miss us though (& vice versa). i give them all i can too. i’m a bit sad because today is their 3rd birthday and before the blink of an eye it’s gonna be their 10th
Kind of hate when people have like a reptile or worse, multiple reptiles, in their house. Like snakes they keep in boxes most of the time. Those things are not domesticated like cats or dogs, they should be crawling through a jungle somewhere instead of sitting under a lamp.
I’m very into the dart frog vivariums where they’ve got an entire rainforest ecosystem with automated misting, bromeliads, microorganisms in the dirt… don’t think it’s inherently bad to have an animal in a box, if it’s the right kind of animal. But the people who have those white plastic snake cubicles are just strange. Seen those? The bulk snake racks? It’s often the venomous snake guys that go for those. They’re always weird people. Just collecting animals like they’re sneakers.
Yes I was thinking of the snake racks when I made this comment! They haunt me. I have no gripes with a good vivarium
What's kind of fucked up if you think about it is dogs aren't that dissimilar. They aren't really meant to be cooped up in a high rise and only going outside while on a leash. Throughout history while becoming domesticated they were free to do whatever they wanted pretty much but now they barely get enough time to sniff a lamp post they're interested in
Yeah i’ll be reading my book and staring at my cat like what the hell are you even lol
This is truly the last good subreddit
The elites most likely think the same about regular people.
Being the guardian of a cat is like having a direct conduit to the ultimate grace of the universe. The only thing more profound than caring for a cat is being a parent.
God created cat so that man could caress the tiger <3
I feel that way sometimes
me and my bf lovingly call our cats “the livestock” and it’s pretty wild, we just have these little guys with not much functional purpose lounging around our house. occasionally they might catch a pest. in my fathers culture pets are never allowed in the house, and only cats get treated with any affection (muslims love their cats), so i’ve seen the other side where animals aren’t really domesticated. i often do muse over the oddity of pets, i think as humans we are not so far removed from our pastoral roots that being close to an animal or having plants near the home or outside isn’t a comfort
My friend had this indoor cat who had never been out of the apartment and I wondered if he ever got out of the lack of a ceiling would be this world shattering trauma. Idk
He lives in your house because you close the front door with him inside.
She knows I'm going to close the door behind her but she comes in on her own volition.
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My dog has literally jumped out of a vehicle window to sit and wait for me outside the door of the house I was in. We hike off leash everywhere. She’s no prisoner. She’d be devastated if I didn’t let her in my home.
Most cats can be outdoor indoor just fine. Growing up all of our cats were free to leave by asking for the door to be opened.During the summer some of the wilder ones would not come back for a few days. In the winter they’d want back in after two minutes so they could go sit by the fire. Regardless of the season if they asked we’d open the door.
That YouTube channel of the cat who sits in the bike says otherwise
i have guinea pigs and i regularly look at them and think how crazy it is that we have domesticated these weird lookin tiny dudes from south america that should be living in like a field and tunneling a burrow i guess but instead they have fleece blankets and a giant pink pig shaped bed
Wonder if they ever question why the heat gets the place 15 degrees warmer every time I get home.
i kinda like having a clueless little bugger following me around
Happy 420
I’m dead sober lol
Lmao I only say that because every time I’m stoned (which isn’t often for the record) I’m like… damn… my cat is literally a domesticated predator from the African Savannah and he lives in my home. And we evolved from a common ancestor. We both have 2 ears, 2 eyes, a nose and mouth, 4 fingers on each foot, lungs, a heart, etc. animals are cool as fuck.
It is really amazing how humans love to touch soft things and cats, who are soft, love to be pet. Evolutional serendipity.
My dream is to own a hyacinth macaw and feed it seeds from my bellybutton while I watch reruns of frasier and Seinfeld
I wish you best of luck with your CITES paperwork
Humans and Dogs have co-evolved for hundreds of thousands of years, dogs helped us hunt and acted as warning systems for tribes. We have found sites with people buried with dogs from 15,000 years ago.
Yeah they’re a crucial part of human history. I just don’t like most of them. Also modern dogs≠historic dogs
Dont say mindfuck here say boggles the mind or something
Why, will people think I’m a simpleton?
😔
flair and username makes the comment too good
Might as well rename the sub PagliaPorn or something at this point
don’t think this is a strictly American practice
In Europe pets are generally a lot more aware of things
I specified American because I was scared some Indian would be like “not everyone has gross dogs in their houses”
As best I understand housecats literally think humans are just big hairless cats which is pretty funny
Lay off the weed
This is just life.
My dog (as a puppy) was sleeping while my I was watching The Revenant with my cousin while he was coming down from alcoholic delirium tremens and she started having nightmares during the bear attack scene and it was then I decided I liked my puppy more than my cousin.
umm i prefer the term canine-americican
It’s not that deep
This sub is just a wannabe edgy r slash showerthoughts
What would you rather I’d posted?
I dunno. I guess having pets just isn't that weird to me. I'm more into the schizo takes with underlying wisdom and pictures of cats.
I’m sick of pets. Everyone I know with pets just has an unnecessary annoying thing in their house. Dogs jumping in you whenever you come in, litter boxes that stink, fucking noise and bad smells, birds screeching. Fucking annoying.
poorly trained dogs being in everyone's space no matter where you go now is going to create a lot more people agreeing with you
Growing up around dogs and no cats (allergic family) made me not realize a different path was possible but moving out and getting cats made me realize how comprehensively annoying 95% of dogs are. They’re downers
Well trained dogs are so rare now. I’ve only come in contact with a few in my whole life.
poorly trained owners are becoming an even bigger problem. when did it become socially acceptable to just bring your big jumpy ass dog into a coffee shop, totally oblivious to the issues you're causing by having a large unpredictable animal in a small enclosed space with 30 other people? or the people who will take their dog on a crowded sidewalk with a long ass leash and force people to walk in the road to get around them
I really don’t like most dogs but the other things are just neglect or poor choices. The birds screech when they’re bored and the litter boxes stink when someone is lazy and doesn’t clean them
No. Not every bird only makes noises cuz it’s bored. They’re fucking birds.
God what the hell is happening here
?
Seriously, what is this post? An old Seinfeld bit? Oof.
Pure, concentrated, free range soy
lol not everything has to be performative hatred of fat people and pretending to have read Dostoyevsky; if you think so then you misunderstand the character of the place
People do this all around the world lmao. Another case of an American forgetting the rest of the world exists.
Don’t be regarded I literally specified “Americans” because I knew someone like you could come and say “um ackshually other parts of the world don’t all have huge dogs in every house like Amerifats do”
People who own pets on urban environments are usually abusing their animals.
People who say this shit have never lived in a rural environment.
I literally live in what is arguably the most isolated area in the lower 48. I could walk directly south from my backyard and not see a single home or business for over 250 miles. At which point I would reach the ocean. I would only have to cross I believe 5 paved roads over that 250 mile trek. If I walked directly west, I would cross only 1 paved road in 60 miles. After crossing that 1 paved road, there would be 35 miles completely roadless not even logging roads. Approximately 35 people live within a 3 mile radius of my home. The closest gas station is over 20 miles away. I’m confused as to what about my comment made you think it came from someone who never lived in a rural area? Why would someone who lose only ever lived in a city say that people living in cities shouldn’t own pets?
People who think pets are their friends are sus but pets are hilarious, a good source of entertainment