This video caused a bit of a rumpus on Facebook judging by the comments. It is a very cute, charming video showing a male cat comforting, by his presence and in kneading, the female while newborn offspring at at the mother’s breast. It is a classic family image. Humans can relate to it. It is heartwarming and for me it somewhat goes against the grain of my perceptions of how male cats deal with birthing females.
Here is the video (it is embedded from FB). If it is not there or not working, sorry. It is not my fault 😉 …
In fact you’ll encounter articles on the internet discussing whether male cats should be around newborn kittens. There is probably the fear of male infanticide. Even though females sometimes kill and even eat their young. My understanding of feral and domestic cat infanticide by males and females is that it is relatively rare. And males behaving as shown in the video is not unique. It does happen from time to time.
Sarah Hartwell (cat expert) writes on her site messybeast.com:
“Although in the main, toms do not contribute to the raising of kittens, there have been instances where even unneutered toms may supply food, tend or move the kittens or be willing to play auntie even to the extent of allowing the kittens to ‘suckle'”
The argument in the comments below the video is about accepting the video for what it is; cute and heartwarming and for the time being to suspend criticism about allowing cats to breed because they have not been sterilised. The criticism did not occur to me but it did to some commenters. And it is a good point. There are too many domestic cats and the main cause is a failure to spay and neuter to a sufficiently high percentage all domestic cats.
We should not be seeing any videos of domestic cats of this type in a perfect world.
Here are some examples of the comments:
A woman, Vittoria De Maurizi, commented on unwanted cat births and neutering which kicked off the argument. I can’t find her original comment. It may have been deleted.
Lizabeth Stafford:
“Our male cat did exactly the same a few weeks ago .refused to leave the mother of his children washed mum and the kittens as each one was born. And helped her every day our other two cats even took over baby sitting and washing duties when mum got up for food. So beautiful to watch them all look after the kittens”.
Shari Breitung:
“Lizabeth Stafford maybe because these good feeling videos often end up as cats in garbage bags at shelters or dying outside. So sick of people wanting to wear the rose colored glasses all the time and ignore the end results which is all that matters.”
Donna Langley:
“There are some zealots on here.. do it my way or we will hate you.. bug off you zealots. This lady had everything planned out and accounted for. It was very sweet what the daddy cat did for the mommy cat. Pure love..”
Donna Jean Meyer:
“Alice DeNolf you forgot to thank Vittoria De Maurizi for turning a simple beautiful sweet video into WW3 as well as a soapbox for her beliefs. Unfortunately she failed to realize that the original poster lives in America too, and has the right to breed HER cat if she so chooses. This isn’t a feral cat or just some stray she feeds on occasion.
Shari Breitung, I always assume when an argument devolves into juvenile name calling that the person is simply too immature to face that someone can think differently than them. I’ve not enough time to deal with them.
As much as I hate to go here… I feel the need to ask… are ALL of you on here bashing the poster this passionate when it comes to CHILDREN too? There are an awful lot of kids in orphanages. Maybe we should start neutering them at age 13…. No one should be allowed to “breed” until all those children are all adopted by such logic. If you are all that passionate about it, I’m guessing you must have adopted all of yours and I commend you. May you have extra jewels in your heavenly crown.
This woman was responsible. There was no need for the filibuster about how horrible she is for being a responsible and loving pet owner . She’s not “adding to the problem”. She’s “taking care of her own.” And I’m sorry, but no matter HOW strongly ones feelings are on animal rights, THAT makes this case no one else’s business.
Oh, and btw,……”
There are 16,000 comments to the video so we can see how it provoked a lot of discussion.
The question is whether we should suspend our desire to criticise when watching this video as it detracts from its charm. Or should we allow both comments and respect each others viewpoint? Surely that must be way forward. Some (or one) commenters strongly objected to raising the topic of unsterilised cats and unwanted births and they were shouted down by some others.
There is a nice oblique reference by Donna Jean Meyer to the rapid increase in the human population. Maybe we should be doing something about that? Human population growth has a hugely negative impact on the wild cat species. We should not forget them. We tend to do that. This is why their numbers continue to decline to endangered levels year-on-year.
I did not kick off the discussion, I responded and agreed with someone else’s comment about pet overpopulation. I also responded to many ignorant and apathetic comments concerning pet overpopulation.
Is it me or is no one ever allowed to view a video, movie, etc. just for pure good feelings any more ? It seems that ever since the downturn in the economy no one is ever allowed to have any fun and everything is so serious and depressing that it is a miracle more people have not slit their throats. And if someone catches someone else having fun or being happy they will make sure to crap all over it. LIGHTEN UP everyone, it is ok to have fun just to have fun. Take tbe misery down a notch, you might actually enjoy life believe it or not.
I think you are right Michele. The world has become overly serious. It may be due to the serious mess the world is in. Or it may be a spin off from political correctness.
I totally agree it is a combination of things, miserable people want everyone else to be miserable too. They may disguise it by using political correctness and being all righteous and high and mighty like trashing people who like the video. They are jealous and resentful of happy people.
When I see this video I am convinced there is a God who created all creatures. It is beautiful and heartwarming. I believe it proves that cats are sentient beings. Too bad some humans do not have that much capacity for caring. They could take a lesson from the video.
Nail on the head. We can enjoy nothing without having our social conscious kicked or being accused of not being woke or some such new nonsense.
I am no longer in rescue because while it is usually 100% positive for the animals it is almost 100% soul draining for the person involved because of the endless cycle of human stupidity that repeats over and over when it comes to being responsible pet owners.
Exactly, it is great that there are people who are responsible pet parents but there have been cat abusers and cat haters since the stone age. No matter what the source is, including mental illness, mo one is going to change them. We cannot lecture them and flame them on social media to get them to change. It is a waste of energy and very stressful. The only thing we can do is continue to volunteer our time or money to help animals, spay/neuter, adopt do not shop, help get stronger animal abuse laws passed, etc. Fighting on social media does absolutely nothing to help animals. Ignore all the negativity or it will drain you like you said. It is a trap and the negative people feed off it and drain your energy. They want you to be miserable all the time.
I am also in rescue and it is difficult sometimes. There are zealots in the rescue world, not just on social media. Some of the things they insist on do not help the animals get adopted. An example is insisting that 2 adult cats are a bonded pair and have to be adopted together. Most people do not want to take 2 cats for various reasons. I believe if they are adult cats they will adjust and it is making it very hard for them to get adopted. It really bothers me for the sake of the animals. This is putting control issues ahead of the animals welfare and I get stressed over it.
All I think I am viewing in this video- is a responsible pet owner, involved in a very loving and natural event between the cat parents, which has been allowed to take place because of their unique situation. Will these cats be abandoned ?? They seem to be loved and cared for judging by the video & story behind it . I hope I’m right in assuming this to be the case. However-I may be portraying my own values with this one ?
All the fuzzy feelings may be just the direct results of the new parents. Hope lives, but is not enough when compassionate decisions are not followed up afterwards. Pet ownership is not a task to be taken lightly. Eva
At some point if new kittens are not born none of us will have cats.
I watched our original feral colony for years. It’s was quite common to leave the baby usually no more than one or two survived very long, with the male cats and go hunting.
I probably should have aborted Tera’s kits but then I wouldn’t have my Tabbinese Tigers, Frog and Toad. The issue is not kittens being born it’s the booming feral cat population and the excess.
Wait a minute! This may be a tempest in a teapot. I absolutely love the tenderness shown in the video, but look at the face of the “papa cat.” It is tapered, not tomcat-shaped. I think we may be dealing with another female comforting the mama cat — a “doula” or midwife. That happens quite often.
COME ON…don’t you think the owner and photographer KNOWS if this id the father or at least male or female???
Of course, but it being the papa cat makes a better story. Just wondering … Whatever the backstory, the video is absolutely enchanting & reminds us how wonderful nature is, don’t you agree?