Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
2016 has been horrific and disappointing in so many ways. But amongst the chaos a constant and generous force has emerged. No matter how dark the moment they have comforted and cheeered our tattered souls.
me when i see a cat: CAT! cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat
Fun fact: when I see cute animals, I forget English and automatically revert to my native Hungarian. I don’t know what bystanders make of me, reciting guttural gibberish to rabbits.
But the real question is, what are you SAYING to the rabbits? Is it ‘RABBIT! rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit bunny bunny bunny awww cute bunnyyyyy’?
Well, I usually say the Hungarian equivalent of ‘bun bun bun lil bun look at your tiny spoon-shaped ears awww bun brave little lawnmower bun’, but sometimes I say ‘hey rabbits, my sister’s gonna go to med school’ because I think everyone should know.
I live in Japan, and I always revert to English to talk to small animals, and I was cooing at this tiny little fluff machine of a puppy in baby english like “hello you’re so cute such a cute hello hello yess you’re good” and the 70 year old Japanese lady that was walking him started to *translate the baby talk english into Japanese* for her pup. She wanted to be sure he understood it too.
The notion that an animal is incapable of feeling affection towards humans if they aren’t constantly infant like and servile is such a dumb bastard of a thought.
There’s really something infuriating about the notion that an animal lacks feelings because it dares to be independent or set boundaries for itself. There’s nothing wrong with an animal that doesn’t feel like being a living doll. Be it a cat or dog or horse or whatever. If the animal doesn’t respond to you, find a new way to motivate it. Don’t write it off as hateful or rebellious, that kind of clickbaity bullshit only sets back communication between people and their animal charges even further than it already is. It also makes behavior science in general look like bullshit, which is really unfortunate when the time comes to try and convince people to change a potentially harmful method.
what sorta goofy dog person wrote that article? either I’m loved by my cats, or they’re slowly trying to eat me
in all seriousness, it’s frustrating that folk unwilling to earn a cat’s trust/affection so often turn around and deny the existence of those rewards. it’s just lazy?
Ah yes, cats don’t love us.
Which is why my old cat used to comfort me and try to groom me when I was sick. Why she was SO EAGER TO PLEASE that if something made you unhappy ONE TIME and she realized it, she would never do that thing again. Why her favorite place to sleep was next to me, even when there were warmer spots.
Which is why my SO’s old cat went ballistic if he was gone for too long. Why he purred all over us for hugs and cuddles and playtime.
Which is why our current cat grooms us, snuggles us (when he isn’t having a “teenage rebel” fit due to his current age), gets upset when either of us is gone too long. Watches out the window for us until we come back home and curls his tail in a happy question mark every time we speak to him.
But of course, cats can’t possibly love us.
Then again, I find it hard to trust any article that begins with the title “science says”.
What it should say, really, is that cats don’t love us… like dogs do.
We haven’t bred them to be fawning, devoted companions. We haven’t bred them to find our attention inherently reinforcing or valuable.
Cats don’t love us like dogs do, but cats can come to love us in the way cats cat - freely given, conditional on us providing our part of the bargain, and only when they feel like it.
Guys, let me tell you a story about my husband’s cat. This cat freaks the fuck out if my husband doesn’t come home at approximately the right time. He’ll give it an hour or so, maybe, but 2 hours after husband is supposed to be home, cue the crying and standing by the front door looking pathetic. And not because he hasn’t been fed (he has) - it’s just because husband isn’t home yet. He also cries if husband forgets to pet him once he’s in the door and his coat’s off. If husband is excited and telling a story about what happened at work, I sometimes have to say “Please pet your cat,” because the cat won’t stop crying until he does.
So he hates me, right? Sure. You might think that. I did, until one day we were moving house, and I had a class all day. So I leave from the old apartment that morning, go to my class. Husband stays home, packs up the last few things, gets the cats into their carriers, and waits for the movers.
Movers come, husband and the cats go to the new apartment. I… am still at class.
Husband’s cat freaks the fuck out in the new apartment, running back and forth between husband and the door all afternoon until I magically find my way to the new apartment and arrive there safe and sound. Whereupon he is FINE. This cat was worried about me. Because as far as he knew, I had no way of knowing how to find them anymore, because they left while I was gone.
(My cat? Apparently has faith that I’ll find my way. He didn’t care. He’s just like “Eh, she’ll figure it out.” So, that was nice. Whatever, he’s the one who follows me out to the couch when I’m not feeling well in the middle of the night.)
Cats don’t love us the way dogs love us. But they can definitely love us.
my mum just bought our cat a christmas stocking even tho we are muslims and dont even celebrate christmas?? she was like ‘we dont know what religion he is we cant force him to be muslim’ hes a cat ?
