enragedDon't you ever, ever insult my cats. Don't you ever, ever imply that I own them because they're "status symbols," or because I am in some way taking pleasure in the knowledge that other cats are being put to sleep right now. Lilly, Alice, and Thomas are my companions. They are my friends. They are the closest I intend to come to having children, and while I may be up for judgment, they are off limits. Leave my cats the fuck alone.
Why do I get my cats from reputable breeders, rather than from the local shelter? A whole bunch of reasons.
I do it for the health of the cat. When I visit a reputable breeder, I can not only meet the kitten I'm hoping to take home with me, I can meet their parents and grandparents. In the case of Alice and Thomas, I met their great-grandfather. I want to know that my cats have a good genetic shot at a long, happy life.
I do it for the temperament of the cat. I have had incredibly sweet, loving shelter cats in my life. I have also had bitter, terrified, xenophobic shelter cats who couldn't be integrated into a household, because they were too damn scared. I want a kitten that has been socialized and loved, and that has been bred to have a good personality to go with those good genes. I want a Lilly, an Alice, a Thomas, a Ripley, a Toby, an Alligator.
And yes, I do insist on kittens whenever possible. At best, I'm bringing home a new cat to an adult who isn't sure about the situation; at worst, I'm bringing home a new cat to two adults who already think there's no room at the inn. I am loud. I move quickly. I go away for long periods of time. I do things the way I do things, and a lot of adult cats can't adjust to me, no matter how hard we both try.
There are cats in shelters. There are cats in rescues. There are cats in need of homes. But I am not in the market for an adult rescue, and the kittens don't need me to be the one that saves them; kittens stand a much better chance than adults. Why do I know this? I know because I have volunteered at shelters and rescues and free clinics since I was twelve years old. Just like I know that I want as complete of a genetic profile as possible on my cats, because I buried so damn many of them when I was bringing them home from the pound.
My cats are not a zero-sum game. Bringing Thomas home from Betsy's didn't kill a kitten somewhere in the world that was waiting for my love; if it hadn't been Thomas, it would have been no new cat at all. Do I wish that there were no cats anywhere in the world waiting for their forever homes? Yes, I do. But that doesn't mean we shut down the breeders, abolish the breeds, and become a Domestic Shorthair and Domestic Longhair-only world. It means we breed responsibly. It means we support the shelters. It means we spay and neuter our pets.
And it means that my cats are not fucking status symbols. They are not somehow less worthy of love and comfort and a place to sleep than cats who have been abused or abandoned. They are exactly as worthy of all those things. And they are getting them from me, as will all the cats in my future.
If you can't be nice to my cats, you leave them the fuck alone.
May 12 2011, 21:35:08 UTC 6 years ago
May 12 2011, 21:50:20 UTC 6 years ago
It drives me nutty the tendency people have to either hear something and then parrot it without bothering to find out if it's correct, or ignore any of the details that don't fit their particular shtick.
(Not to mention that there are often very sensible reasons to opt for a purebred; sometimes you REALLY need to know what kind of animal you're getting and what kind of temperament its likely to have.)
May 12 2011, 22:01:17 UTC 6 years ago
The sound of my palm hitting my forehead resounded around the world, I'm sure.
I'm sorry. I live in a walk-up apartment. Excuse me for needing to know just how big that puppy is going to get, and whether I'd be dealing with somebody beagle sized, or German Shepard sized, or somebody that's going to be like a border collie and go bonkers if I can't run it three hours a day or somebody that can take our irregular schedule in stride. That's the difference right there between "successful pet ownership" and "ending up having to pawn the animal off on someone/somewhere else because it badly isn't working, and the animal being a source of contention in the home."
I also have a husband who's not-quite-sure about the "cat thing": he likes very people focused animals, and we agreed that the best way we ensure we get that, frankly, is to get a kitten that's been well socialized and inclined to have such a temperament. We're apt to end up with a Siamese; I'd frankly rather have a Maine Coon (I do luvs them so) but I think the breed temperament of a Siamese would go over better. And I'll be VERY picky about the breeder; I want a extrovert, not a nervous wreck.
...Which you can STILL get with a shelter cat. We had one that kept pulling out her own fur. I feel bad about her; we loved her, but my parents have always had several animals, and she wasn't a good only pet.
May 12 2011, 22:07:24 UTC 6 years ago