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 13 2011, 04:05:50 UTC 6 years ago
I'm really sorry that people are being stupid and that they inflicted teh stupid on you. :-/
I do dog rescue. I also am seriously considering adding a second Toller to my family this summer because one of my favorite Toller males has just been bred. I'm going to Canada to spend the weekend w/ the breeder and see the puppies when they're about five weeks old. I fully expect that one will find its way to Indiana several weeks after that when they're ready to go home.
My desire to always have my fuzzy (purebred) redheads doesn't make my devotion to rescuing the fluffy spotted English things any less and doesn't negate the fact that I've fostered a half dozen dogs in the last few years... a half-dozen English Setters who would have been killed in shelters if it wasn't for purebred rescue (and we get bitched at for being a purebreed rescue! Sheesh! And this particular rescue has taken in a lot of pregnant maybe-Setter moms and found wonderful loving homes for the definitely-not-Setter puppies... it's not like they're walking away from dogs on the killing floor because they might not be purebred.) Oops... sorry... different soapbox!
Anyway, I think that everyone should have the right to be loved by whatever pets they desire, as long as those pets are humanely sourced. That can mean they come from a rescue... or a shelter... or from a caring and conscientious breeder.
The dog and cat worlds would be really really boring if all we had were random mutts and moggies.
May 13 2011, 19:13:56 UTC 6 years ago