This video sparked a lot of discussion after I posted a comment several months ago in which I stated that the cat’s owner should have done better. This is what I said:
Sorry, but I disagree with what you did, namely, leaving your cat in your home for 3 weeks while you were on holiday and arranging for someone to look in every 2 days. That is not good enough as far as I’m concerned and I feel sorry for your cat.
The owner says this under her video:
My cat’s “welcome home” show after I returned from a 3 weeks holiday. He was not hungry or sick, since I arranged for someone to check in on him every couple of days. I guess he was just happy to see me…
Since the argument in the comments section she has added more details to assuage criticism which I had sparked off.
A lot of people commenting insulted me (typical of YouTube visitors many of whom are frankly ignorant) but some supported me. Here are some examples of the comments:
Jade says: cats are not kids, get a life, animal lover
David says: I totally agree. Some people are under the false impression that cat’s aren’t sociable animals like dogs. Leaving a cat alone for 3 weeks is ridiculous. A visitor every couple of days to feed the cat and check the litter box is just wrong. If your to cheap to pay for full time care, then you shouldn’t have a pet.
Ocelot girl: Dude, I’ve read all of your comments in the conversation you had with AstrialCOW, you’re seriously acting like leaving a healthy cat, (who had food and someone to look after him) alone in a relatively big apartment for 3 weeks is the same as leaving him locked in a kettle for 3 weeks. Honestly, I’m a HUGE animal lover too and I saw absolutely nothing wrong with this.
Garen: That isn’t enough? How is that, can you tell me? Cats are felines. There are maybe dozens of cats around my house and they’re breeding like a prague, no one is feeding or taking care of them, because they can actually live by themselves. A cat doesn’t even need an owner at all, and even if it’s a lame cat overindulged by owners like you they still have in their DNA the instincts needed to survive just fine. Stop treating animals like pussies, and most of all , stop acting like they give a shit about their owners lol. They are just smart enough to know you’re a useful tool. No friendship, cats don’t know such thing.
So what do you think? I’ll tell you what I think. There is a quite a lot of ignorance in the world and lot of it is on YouTube. The attitude of many visitors to YouTube is symptomatic of the ignorance in the world generally. But I am asking too much? I am setting too high a standard?
In relation to cats this shallow attitude and endemic ignorance is revealed in a love of “funny cat videos” and cats fighting and getting hurt with a contemptuous disregard for more serious but more important videos about cats such as those concerned with cat welfare which the majority of visitors conveniently ignore.
I am not saying this person was abusing her cat. I was stating that if you are a cat owner and you live in an apartment and you go away for 3 weeks you need to do better in respect of caretaking for your cat than merely asking a friend to pop in to your apartment to check up on your cat every other day. That does not work for me.
Perhaps this is a question of standards. We each have our own. The standards of many cat owners is too low. There needs to be improvements.
‘I am upset you have lost your handbag. That is such a pain. Shame someone didn’t have the decency to hand it in, or am I being naïve, et. . .’
Shop at store Saturday afternoon. Come home. Water vegetable garden for half an hour. Sit in garden chair for another half hour, reading newspaper. Go in house. Cook fresh pole-beans for supper. Shred head of garden cabbage for coleslaw.
An hour later, need to fetch something from handbag.
Where is handbag?
Handbag gone. Dramatically gone.
Search car. Search front garden and driveway. Search sunroom. Kitchen. Living room. Both hallways. Scrooch down to peer under tables and chairs. Search car fourth time. Back car out of garage to inspect floor of garage.
No handbag.
Sleepless Sat. and Sun nights. By now, thief has been using up checkbooks at ocean-side casinos.
Three a.m., and Eggs Benedict eyes glued to ceiling. Thief has dug house-keys out of wallet. How to barricade doors w/o having to pay hundreds of dollars on locksmith? Dare not nod off. Thief can get in.
Monday morning: Phone store. ‘Did you find a handbag left on counter?’ ‘No. No handbag.’
Phone vehicle license bureau in neighboring town. Closed on Monday. Open Tuesday.
Phone insurance company. ‘Could you please reissue a card?’
Rush down to bank. Withdraw $500.00 to tide over. Handbag-less, stuff gelt into paper bag that reads ‘Fresh from Bakery.’ Nice customer service representative sits for half hour at desk making phone calls and filling out papers for signatures. Checking acct. officially closed. New one opened. New checks will arrive in a week or so.
She sees crinkled bagel bag, and offers to drive home during her lunch hour and bring back three purses she’s had for years and doesn’t need. Protest kindly offer. She insists.
Drive over to Police station. Wait for 50 minutes in lobby packed with perps. An officer finally leads way to private room. Rapid -fire questions. Says it’s a felony if checkbooks involved. Jots down notations and fills out a form to be signed in two places.
Drive to next bank. Close account and open new one. New checks will arrive in a week or ten days.
Drive up to credit union 20 miles away. Same routine.
Drive back to town.
Swing by bank second time as nice woman directed. Thank her for purses.
Two days ago bought honking tube of lipstick. Gone, along with handbag. Drive to drugstore. Buy second tube.
Drive to shopping mall and buy handbag and wallet.
Drive up to next town to have library card canceled and reissued.
Drive home. Garden need watering. Sun beating down.
Water everything. Wend way around back to scrutinize grapes.
Turn corner of house.
Handbag sitting on sidewalk.
Screech. Leap. Wave arms. Bound into front yard. Sidney Vicious sprawled under bush. Pick him up & whirl him around in lunatic waltz. Kissy fest. Dash into house and grab a two-ounce can of treat and three cans of F.F. Plop into saucer. Eats everything.
Jump into car. Drive down to supermarket to buy two ‘artisan’ cakes from supermarket. Frosting rosebuds. Cheesecake marbling. Jelly infusions. Bring one to purse-lady.
Other to cop. Can they ever forgive? Ask cop not to tell police chief (a waspish specimen). Keep under hat. Otherwise, chief will know complainant has gone around bend.
Handbag sitting out back for two days? No answer to this. Amnesiac episode.
They say when you find galoshes in bathtub and wristwatch in freezer, the end is near. A sobering thought, though no Alzheimers in family tree yet.
p.s. It may not be naïve. Years ago, when shopping late at night, I left my purse in the cart in the lot. I discovered the loss within minutes, made fiendish U-turn back to store, and the manager said someone found and brought it into tbe office, with everything intact, including the cash. Still longer ago, I dropped a checkbook from my backpack into a parking lot. Someone returned it. Sterling rectitude? The officer said today that thieves no longer have much interest in checkbooks. They’re after cash & plastic.
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AN OPINION:
‘So many people believe that cats (particularly ferals) are self-reliant and can survive without human intervention. That is completely false, if they are to stay healthy. They may be keen hunters, but they can’t sustain themselves a very long time depending on their own skills.’
Unless urbanites are thumbs down on ferals, legislation perhaps could be passed to assist kindhearted people who, entirely on their own, take upon themselves the financial burden of caring for these cats. (Martha Kane is another.) With zero assistance from the city or state government, they shouldn’t have to step into the shoes of callous, irresponsible people any more than they should have to feed and care for negligent parents’ half-starved children roaming the neighborhood, looking for a handout.
If it could be voted into law, public taxation shouldn’t be that onerous for the cities and townships, and it would partly recompense people who, out-of-pocket, are paying to help these cats with not an ounce of support from anyone, much less recognition for all their generosity.
Moreover, no city-bred cat can catch everything it needs to survive. It’s never happened, despite people who pride themselves in contradicting this glaring reality – emaciated as their cats are, even during the height of spring and summer.
Wow, what a story. It captures nicely the agony of it all but great that it turned up. Is there a moral there somewhere? Check everything slowly before deciding it is really lost?