Why is cat ownership okay?

I think a lot this is a result of the covid pandemic which negatively affected peoples empathy, plus more people acquired pets without any real idea how to train or look after them properly.

Wow... rare to have a female ginger.

I like irony.
When we got our Bengal / Ragdoll crosses (Think, expensive tabbies with cute markings) I named the little girl Ginger. Unfortunately, she died one day before her fifth birthday. Fred is still going strong at 12 years old though. Asleep on my bed at the moment 🙂

Not a fan of Dogs myself but I get that some people love the fury little bastards.
Out of control Cats don't generally tear toddlers faces off at a family BBQ or randomly block paths/jump at strangers while their owners tell you they're "being friendly". But I'm sure I've got it backwards and Cats are the real menace to society...

Climbing in through a window to have a snooze and deliver a dead bird is the sort of behaviour a cat would normally reserve for someone they like/trust, has your child gone and secretly been nice to a neighbour's cat OP?
It was probably just "being friendly"...

Have you experienced the alternative? My mate was veggie and fed his Staffie a veggie diet. You have never smelt anything like it! Seriously, its regular gaseous emissions could instantly clear a room. It was like chemical warfare. Eye-watering like you’d been CS gassed! 😳

On the flip side I had to baby sit a vegetarian dog and knowing that was stupid I fed it nice chicken. Jeez that got messy .

Tropical fish are the real planet killers, think of all that wasted electricity and carbon emissions. Same for snakes and bloody reptiles.

Why are threads about pet ownership okay?

I am very sympathetic to your points OP, but I know better than to argue with strangers about it on the net.

It was probably just “being friendly”…

I see what you did there, but come off it... it's a cat.

😉

invasive species

Birds cause an immense amount of damage, mice chew electrical cables and cause house fires, so I'm glad we have cats to keep the numbers naturally in check.

I’d feel no remorse about killing any cat I found on my property

Some might suggest nature is trying to even the score by trying to drop trees on you 😉

feeling massively irresponsible right now, I've got the power of life and death in my hands.

I'll give her some dreamies.

Just balance up how many birds die from cats to amount of pesticides sprayed taking away lots of food for the tits with 8 chicks to feed
My cat is bullied by the Magpies but does kill a few mice
Law of the jungle.
Their turds are 1/10th of a Rottvie or big dug but I suppose still minging if left lying

TBH I find the whole concept of cat/dog ownership a bit of an anachronism. Both have their uses in some situations but, a bit like wood stoves, most of the owners seem to be doing it because it's fashionable or there's some sort of primal desire they can't shake off, despite no longer living in a cave.

I see what you did there, but come off it… it’s a cat.

Well it's basically being friends with a small, fur covered sociopath:
They don't really know how to show affection other than to take a Rodent or Avian life and present you the corpse as an offering. They like you but when they try to express that fact it will be disturbing.
We've had lots of trophy kill offerings and once a live execution of a sparrow at the dinner table. I choose to think it's been character building for my kids rather than mildly traumatic...

Anyway on behalf of all cat owners everywhere please allow me to apologise for someone else's cat, which clearly lacks an appropriate sense of boundaries...

TBH I find the whole concept of cat/dog ownership a bit of an anachronism. Both have their uses in some situations but, a bit like wood stoves, most of the owners seem to be doing it because it’s fashionable or there’s some sort of primal desire they can’t shake off, despite no longer living in a cave

Have you done it? I didn't get it until I did. Obviously everyone is different but after having had a cat for the best part of 20 years when she died the house felt empty. Hard to put into words how much 'life' an almost completely silent 3kg animate object (or two currently) can bring to a household (and the grief when they go). It's totally illogical but hard wired in a lot of us somehow.

Btw - there is nothing fashionable in a rescue moggie.

We get our next door neighbours cats coming into our house all the time.

Theres a specific hashtag for the furry little invaders, arriving uninvited

#notmycat

I am very sympathetic to your points OP, but I know better than to argue with strangers about it on the net.

... he argued.

😁

interactions with cats may improve health and reduce physical responses to stress: for example the presence of cats may moderately decrease blood pressure.[39] Cat ownership may also improve psychological health by providing emotional support and dispelling feelings of depression, anxiety and loneliness.[40]: 23–56  Their ability to provide companionship and friendship are common reasons given for owning a cat.[11]

From another point of view, cats are thought to be able to improve the general mood of their owners by alleviating negative attitudes. According to a Swiss study carried out in 2003, cats may change the overall psychological state of their owner as their company's effect appears to be comparable to that of a human partner.[41] The researchers concluded that, while cats were not shown to promote positive moods, they do alleviate negative ones.

One study found that cat ownership is associated with a reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes at the 95% confidence interval.[42]

Several studies have shown that cats develop affection towards their owners. However, the effect of these pets on human health is closely related to the time and effort the cat owner is able to invest in it, in terms of bonding and playing.[43]

It's a mutually beneficial relationship, also genetically speaking, we are basically cousins to cats.

most of the owners seem to be doing it because it’s fashionable or there’s some sort of primal desire they can’t shake off, despite no longer living in a cave.

Pets are just great to have around. They're very therapeutic. Ours are rescue cats and they both join us on the sofa in the evening, call up on us, purring away

Here they are, the murderous little bastards. Yogacat...

he actually sleeps like this. Like he's been thrown out a plane.

And this one sits here staring at me with a look of total contempt on his face when I'm on the turbo trainer 😂

Closed within 2 pages

Getting dangerously close to 3 pages... 🤷‍♂️

Wow… rare to have a female ginger.

Yeah. Up until we got her I didn't know it was possible. There was a second ginger in the litter who also turned out to be a girl, she was adopted by The Boy (my partner's son). We renamed ours, they didn't, so she has a sister named Neville.

There's precedence here, mind. The mother was a calico who for some inexplicable reason was called Kevin.

Have you experienced the alternative? My mate was veggie and fed his Staffie a veggie diet. You have never smelt anything like it! Seriously, its regular gaseous emissions could instantly clear a room. It was like chemical warfare. Eye-watering like you’d been CS gassed! 😳

Mate of mine had a 12-stone Giant Schnauzer. The dog's favourite food in the whole world was broccoli. Under no circumstances was he allowed to eat broccoli.

TBH I find the whole concept of cat/dog ownership a bit of an anachronism. Both have their uses in some situations but, a bit like wood stoves, most of the owners seem to be doing it because it’s fashionable or there’s some sort of primal desire they can’t shake off, despite no longer living in a cave.

Wait until you find about the horses!

There are lots of things not right in the world. Pet ownership is way down the list of problems.

db (dog owner)

Well it’s basically being friends with a small, fur covered sociopath:

Ah, that explains it. They probably see me as a kindred soul.

Pets are just great to have around. They’re very therapeutic.

Aye, it's a thing. I had cause to be at the hospital recently and someone came round the wards with a therapy dog. Cheered everyone up, was a talking point for ages.

Your neighbour’s cat jumps in out of your first floor window and hunts birds at night?

That's nothing, our* cat could make it in through the 3rd story window of a stately home, that's ~50ft from the ground level? He got in and out via a circuitous route involving jumping between the rooves of several detached houses, down to a 12ft wall, onto an almost level spiked wooden fence, down to a 5t wall, and then the ground (and the reverse to get back in). He would do that whilst carrying a live rabbit!

When he got old we added scaffold planks so at least he didn't have to leap the gaps between rooftops.

*may years ago, my brothers, I am not a cat person

Climbing in through a window to have a snooze and deliver a dead bird is the sort of behaviour a cat would normally reserve for someone they like/trust, has your child gone and secretly been nice to a neighbour’s cat OP?
It was probably just “being friendly”…

Yes, i've decided to not get another cat, as i'm away every other weekend now. So we're nice to the neighbours cat instead (their kids are in and out of here when mine are around, so it's no big deal)
But i've started finding her outside the back door, or curled up on the sofa outside looking for some respite from a house with three kids in it. So i now have a box of treats next to the back door. It's a good halfway house 😉

And before then i had cats for over 20 years, and in that time one of them caught a mouse, and then got so nervous and freaked out that he threw up.
And one of them caught a bird.

After it'd already flown into the window and knocked itself unconscious. I think we should ban windows, killing the poor defenseless birds...

Yes, i've always had useless cats, mostly indoor, or "very close to the house because it's all scary out there".
Either actually broken, terminally lazy or incredibly badly coordinated.

One particularly stupid cat spent two or three entire summers trying to catch a bird, any bird, from the railing on the edge of the balcony, in that time the only thing he managed to perfect was leaping on to the railing *without* going over the edge (only first floor, so not a long drop). Never caught anything, no feathers, no funky green organ left behind. Just embarrassment as he went over the rail, again.

Another particularly robust and lazy individual went to sleep on the lawn because it was warm and comfy, instead of completing his chosen task of stalking a bird. Laid out there for a couple of hours while the birds just carried on around him.

For me,the MOST shocking thing in this thread,is that Binners has a turbo trainer.
Changed days indeed 😆 🤣 😉

Oh **** horses! (Not literally obvs) They make a total mess of my local tracks.
Chop them up and feed them to dogs, then maybe dogs would stop eating babies all the time.

I like nothing better that tracking down evil smelling cat turds in the flower beds, apart from accidently finding one with my bare hands.

There are lots of things not right in the world. Pet ownership is way down the list of problems.

Honestly, I don't understand it.

I'm not a fan of dog shit (who is), it's a menace, but I wouldn't then conclude that I'd cheerfully murder any dog I found in my yard and hit the Internet to boast about it. What if it were the neighbour's children that had just climbed the wall to retrieve a football that'd just put your window through? Antifreeze tub lollies all round, kids? It's insane.

The bottom line is that other people are a ****ing inconvenience, animals are just being animals. It astounds me on a regular basis how one person can be so devoid of spatial awareness or social mores that they can block off an entire supermarket aisle on their own. Or minicab drivers who see their mate coming from the other direction so both drop anchor in the middle of the street for a chat. No-one gives a **** about anyone else bar themselves and it's getting worse.

Their turds are 1/10th of a Rottvie or big dug but I suppose still minging if left lying

The difference is I can ride around a rotties turd on the path, I see it once, and it's out of my life. Next doors cat however leaves hundreds of shits in my garden just waiting for me to step in them whilst eating my breakfast. And while 95% of dog turds get picked up or flicked into the undergrowth, I've never heard of anyone wandering around the neighborhood apologizing and offering to pick up after Mr Meowoggi has done a turd that smells worse than a post vindaloo expulsion in the roses.

I've never understood the outrage caused by cats shitting in gardens. Presumably those bothered about this are also outraged at badgers, birds, foxes and other wild animals doing the same? Cats are semi-wild. It's what makes them so appealing, you get the companionship of a domesticated pet, without the high maintainence dependency of a dog (which is like having a un-toilet trained toddler for 15 years). Also you can minimise the wildlife problem with bells, keeping them in at night etc.

To the OP, maybe keep your child's window's closed or ajar so animals can't get in? Whether domestic or wild, animals don't respect property boundaries.

For me,the MOST shocking thing in this thread,is that Binners has a turbo trainer.

"has" and "uses" are not synonyms. 😁

Pets are just great to have around. They’re very therapeutic.

Agreed - our kids absolutely adore our dog and a child living with us (fostered) uses her for emotional support when he is distressed or upset about anything - he even curls up in her bed sometimes even if she's not in it.

What about 1bn dogs? That’s how many dogs there are in the world. Only 0.6bn cats.

Yeah, it's the dogs who are drilling all the oil, burning the coal, cutting down the rain forests and mining lithium for batteries so we can pretend to be green. And it's the cats that make them

There are lots of things not right in the world. Pet ownership is way down the list of problems.

Oh, don't mistake my musings for anger or anything. As a family, we always had a dog. I'll always stop to talk to dogs I see when I'm out riding (one of my mates calls me the Dog Whisperer as they seem to instinctively come to me). And I know all about horses. My daughter owns one of the moneypits.😭

I can't quite believe I'm typing this but, what dazh said.

It seems frankly bizarre to me that someone would object to cats killing birds and then pop over to KFC for a bargain bucket. Y'all know where your food comes from, right?

For me,the MOST shocking thing in this thread,is that Binners has a turbo trainer.

“has” and “uses” are not synonyms. 😁

@Cougar - you saved me making that very point 😀

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/25/qais-hussain-how-our-islamic-faith-conquered-my-mothers-fear-of-cats

Just to be clear I have owned or co-owned 4 cats 4 dogs and one Shetland pony. The last one being very good looking and very crabbit.

I’ve never understood the outrage caused by cats shitting in gardens. Presumably those bothered about this are also outraged at badgers, birds, foxes and other wild animals doing the same?

I presume then you'd be fine if my dog shat in your garden then?

Cats are semi-wild. It’s what makes them so appealing, you get the companionship of a domesticated pet, without the high maintainence dependency of a dog whilst being able to claim some sort of Get Out Of Jail Free card for behaviour that isn't acceptable, but ooh, isn't it fluffy and cute