and yes I do know that there are people who do not like them. I happen to like them. I also happen to be getting rather fed up with them getting a bad press.
I know most of the local cats. (I know most of the local dogs too.) We get on quite well with one another. I respect their independence. The Senior Cat and I are very tolerant of cats visiting us. Some of them, one in particular, will sit and watch the Senior Cat while he potters around in the garden. Another will often sit on the garden table and watch me put clothes on the line - or sit on the fence and tease the chihuahua from next door into a frenzy of yapping. (It never lasts long but that particular cat knows exactly what it is doing.)
I talk to the cats and they, in their own way, talk back to me. We just happen to get along well together.
But other people tell me they are dreadful creatures. They don't want them in their yards. They make a mess. They catch birds. They dig the garden and much more.
This is odd. No cat has ever made a mess in our garden. They may dig discreetly - but they cover over what they deposit there. It's not a problem.
Do they catch birds? They might. Yes they are hunters but I have yet to see them catch a healthy and active bird - and I have been observing them for years. The only occasion on which one of our last two cats "caught" a bird was when he, very gently, brought in an injured bird and put it at my mother's feet. Then he looked up at her and made a small, distressed sound - as if to say, "Can you fix it?" The bird was clearly elderly. It had been easy to pick up.
We played with our cats. They chased table tennis balls and caught at ropes, pounced on mice I knitted them and fought inside large brown paper bags that the groceries were once packed in. When they were outside birds could walk within a metre or so of them and they would just sit and look. They are the cats who spent hours in the bedroom watching the Senior Cat when he was recovering from major surgery. When he was well again they went back to their normal routine.
Yes, they know the sound of a tin opener. They are, in whatever way cats are, disappointed if it isn't tuna. They can show displeasure. And they don't always want company. I respect that. They are independent. They don't need training like dogs. They bathe themselves.
Perhaps it is that very independence that makes some people dislike them. I don't know.
What I do know is that legislation to "stop them wandering" won't work. Cats simply won't obey that.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
They can put up notices all they want, but it will do no good until they (same they) can teach every cat to read.
Dogs may get trained, but they do not speak English. If I am sharing some little snack biccies with my hound, and say "All Gone" she can see that it is not true, but understands that she is not getting any more.
Dogs do attend to their own cleaning - yes we towel them off when wet, but almost never bathe them. Our Cocker Spaniel had a cold once, and a nasty green snotty nose. She felt too ill to wash herself, and she was stinky. As soon as she got better, she smartened herself up with no help from us.
https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-GB/asset/112158/greek-6th-century-bc/attic-red-figure-cup-detail-of-a-laconian-hound-scratching-his-head-by-the-euergides-painter-c-500-bc-ceramic
I don't know whether the above will work as a link, but it is a good picture of what we see our hound doing daily - with that exact expression on her face. Dogs ad cats don't change.
I am all for cats - but unless they are "working animals" i.e. on a farm or actively protecting from rodents - they do not belong out wandering around in a neighborhood anymore than a dog does. Pets deserve to be cared for and protected - not out where they can be hurt by people, other animals or hit by cars.
Post a Comment