Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: enraged
  • Music: There is currently no music. Stand by for all-clear.

And then Seanan got angry.

I am, to a degree, a public figure. I know that. I am also a low-level enough public figure that I am accessible, unlike, say, anyone who's actually famous. That means that some of the things I do and say will be judged in ways that will seem unfair to me. I know that, too. I've basically come to grips with the fact that if I want to be an author, and if I want to make my living doing this, I'm going to have to deal with people judging me. That being said...

Don'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.
Tags: alice, cats, cranky blonde is cranky, don't be dumb, lilly, thomas
  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    switch
    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    Help
  • 263 comments
...go 2 levels up... Expand

aeriedraconia

May 13 2011, 04:22:26 UTC 6 years ago

It's so sad, I've seen a number of adverts on Craigslist from people who want to get rid of their cat because they just had a baby, "We just can't take care of/don't have time for a cat now that we have a baby." Makes me wonder if they're really ready for children if a cat is too much trouble to take care of.

Awww, your baby is holding that tail so nicely. :-)

archangelbeth

May 14 2011, 01:00:42 UTC 6 years ago

I know that some kids are high-attention-demanding. (Been there, have that!) And some cats are, too. And the combination might indeed be troublesome. I have a good imagination! I can imagine that there are edge-cases where cat+kid=ican'tcope. It wasn't easy to take one of ours an hour down to Boston to get chemotherapy, and have the kid trying to rampage around the waiting room. (I note that I had a harness. My kid was on a leash! Didn't heel worth beans, though. *sigh*)

But, dang... It's good for kids to grow up with animals! Reduces the odds of allergies and asthma!

And she really was very nice to the cats, overall. (And the cats who were too un-laid-back for a baby to maul them... went out of reach, and all was well.)

After Choplicker died was when we started getting our shelter-cats. We got Ivan, who may be pet-quality Maine Coon himself, for how he looks, and he needed a buddy, so I went back to the local shelter, and they let Baxter out of the cage, and that orange and white butterball went luv-luv-luv all over us, and even knocked over my poor toddler! Ever since, he's been convinced he's bigger than she is, even though she's now 11.

...sorry, sorry, get a mom talking about her cats and kid together and it's like double-trouble... I'm glad that the picture was at least somewhat cute for you, too! O:D