Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
in my experience nobody stops having a favorite animal when they grow up but people DO stop asking. well now i’m asking. what’s everyone’s favorite animal mine is the noble manatee
Anonymous:
Do you consider cat declawing to be unethical, and if so, what would you consider to be the best alternative?
yeah declawing is ABSOLUTELY unethical from a medical standpoint, and I’ll tell you why!
so this is what a cat’s paw looks like on the inside:
take a quick second to look it over, and note which parts of it are actually touching the ground and bearing the cat’s weight.
it’s the “palm” and the ends of the toes, right?
well, that’s the problem. so you probably ALSO noticed that the cat’s claws are actually attached to those last toe bones, which is why when a cat is declawed, they remove that entire last toe joint like this:
so the issue is, the bone that was bearing the cat’s weight is gone. it no longer exists. this forces the weight of the cat’s body onto the end of the second bone, here:
and that’s a HUGE fucking problem. that bone was never meant to touch earth, the ends of it are covered in nerves and connective tissue instead of padding! putting weight on it WILL cause the cat pain, chronic-for-the-rest-of-your-life pain!
cats are terrible about actually expressing pain, but if you pay attention to how declawed and non-declawed cats walk, you’ll notice that declawed cats put their feet down much more gingerly and are more hesitant with their first steps.
and this is because it hurts.
please don’t declaw your cat. just use claw caps or keep their nails trimmed.
cats are ideal bc they’re gods most autistic creatures
stoppppp i’m already crying 😭😭😭
i feel called out 😋
Fun fact did you know that there are no cats diagnosed with autism because all our reference points for “autistic behavior” are things cats just do regularly.
So either no cat has autism or every cat is autistic
So either no cat
has autism or every
cat is autistic
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
for me, as someone who also does shelter work, the biggest disservice i think we do to the public is acting like returning or surrendering cats is evil.
typically when someone surrenders a pet there are two situations going on:
1) the person has really thought about it and feels terrible about it but doesn’t feel they have another choice. and usually they don’t! they are moving somewhere that doesn’t take pets, or losing their home, or can’t afford to take care of their animal, or have health issues, or whatever. people in this case aren’t just casting away an animal they don’t care about. they’re making a really hard decision. i have seen so many shelter workers be so mean to people in this situation, and i hate it. there is nothing to be gained from not just saying “you’re making the right choice, we’ll find your pet a good home, good luck with everything”.
2) the person genuinely doesn’t care about the animal at all, or doesn’t like it, in which case jesus christ yeah please surrender it! i’m not going to try to shame someone who is making the correct choice of giving their pet the chance to get a better home.
i think a lot of people go into pet ownership unprepared for how much of a responsibility it is, and if they end up having to surrender their animal for whatever reason the least we can do is be compassionate about it.
the second most important thing to tell adopters is that cats don’t pee outside the litterbox for no reason and if that’s happening ftlog take the cat to the vet before you do anything else.
I’m a feline behaviorist. I study why cats do the things they do and how to alter those behaviors. The more I learned, the more I found out…
We still have absolutely no idea how or why they do most of the things they do. Mr. Gaiman has appropriately done his research and it gets my professional seal of approval.
the purest form of serotonin is when a cat looks at u and u go like “what?” and it meows at u
like, that is a very unspecific response I still have no idea what you want but I applaud how adorably you meowed all the same, well done
This post led me to reminisce on the nature of cat’s meowing, and I have a funny story
I befriended a feral cat once who had spent her life in the forest without human interaction. I was worried about her because she had a paw damaged from an old injury and was emaciated but obviously nursing kittens that were hidden away somewhere. It took me weeks of putting out food and sitting across the yard every evening for her to trust me even a little and when she decided we were friends and she expected dinner every night she started coming to my door and trying to call for me in the evening, but she didn’t meow. Why would she? Cats only meow naturally as kittens when their vocal chords/ears aren’t fully developed, adult cats communicate with vocalizations that aren’t audible to humans. She probably tried making noises I couldn’t hear to call me but ended up sticking to the one I always responded to- a horrible yowling growl that she had made at me when we first encountered each other in the forest. Except once we were friends she would make this noise while purring and rubbing affectionately against a nearby tree or the porch railing (because she didn’t want to touch me yet). This understandably freaked my family members out but I was touched that she had taken the time to find a way to basically yell FUCK OFF in an affectionate way.
Fast forward to when she finally trusts me enough to bring her hidden kittens out of the forest to me, long story short I gained their trust and put them in this big pen, that I had previously used to keep chickens in, so they’d be safe and to keep her from having another litter. Except she was already secretly pregnant again! (Fix your pets, guys, they make SO many babies) and ended up having her new babies in this pen. I kept my distance, sitting on the outside once they were born until she seemed comfortable enough to let me come inside. The kittens were a bit wild, hissing viscously at me as soon as they opened their eyes, but they warmed up to me. There were four of them and soon they all wanted to be the center of attention during the twice daily play sessions. I’d be playing with one and another would meow insistently behind me and I’d immediately answer them and give them love, teaching them that humans could be friends that answer their needs- making them adoptable once they were weaned. Mama cat (Artie) would just watch me play with them, and I guess she was doing some thinking because one day when they were about a month old I was playing with them and one meowed behind me. I was confused because I hadn’t realized there was a kitten behind me and when I turned, there wasn’t. The only cat there was Artie looking at me really intensely. I turned back around to the kittens and I heard the meow again, I turned back to Artie and responded in the way I always did with the kittens “yes baby?” And she meowed again in an exact imitation of her kittens! After that she would.not.shut.up. It was like she had cracked some kind of code, meowing for attention and snacks and just to say hi. Her two older kittens, the ones she’d had in the forest, had never meowed at me either but started to once they saw how I responded to their mom. and I find it endlessly fascinating because before that it had never occurred to me that cats only meow at humans because they were taught by other cats to keep meowing past kittenhood because that’s the best way to get a human’s attention.
Imagine befriending some weird giant with the wrong number of legs that you met in the forest who seems nice enough but doesn’t seem to be able to hear you, until your friend explains that all they can understand is fuck off! And I’m a baby give me love!
Let’s talk about the astounding similarities between cats and autistic people, and how we should make them the official autism mascot instead of that godawful puzzle piece
Oh man, now you’ve got me going!
Firstly, cats stim. They purr, swish their tails and knead their paws against pillows, blankets, and other soft things. Many cats actively seek out sensory experiences, like listening to birds singing, lying in a sunbeam, rolling against the grass, etc.
Cats have sensory sensitivities— many of them dislike walking on certain flooring, touching certain textures, and certain smells or sounds may make them anxious. Their fur is very sensitive, they can sense the lightest touch, or speck of lint, or dust and their skin will quiver until they can lick or rub it off. When they become overstimulated cats retreat into a small, dark place to recover.
Cats love routine. Many cats know the exact time that their owners wake up in the morning and will wake them. A cat with a routine is a happy cat— they love to have their meals or soft food on a schedule and will learn their owner’s schedule. Cats will become anxious when the schedule is disrupted or if their owner doesn’t follow their usual routine.
In the same vein cats are very wary and/or anxious when it comes to the introduction of new things or people into their environment. Cats require time and patience to get used to anything or anyone newly introduced. Cats also feel anxious when existing furniture is rearranged or when a new smell (like an air freshener) is introduced into the home.
Cats often have “special interests”, a particular activity or thing that they love and can spend hours enjoying. It could be playing with a particular toy, chewing on something, listening to the radio, or watching the clothes in the washing machine. My cat Kitty has a certain ball that she fixates on and will happily enjoy and obsess over for hours.
Finally, cats have a very distinct and subtle body language. The difference is particularly evident when compared with the exuberant, unsubtle dog. The slightest twitch of a tail or turn of the ears, the frequency and timing of blinks, and the positioning of the tail in relation to the body are all little movements that can express much. To the untrained eye it may appear as if a cat is bored, aloof, or unaware of its surroundings. But once you learn to recognize cat body language and understand cat communication, you’ll be amazed at the depth of emotion and how expressive your cat really is.
Yes, I think that cats have a lot in common with autistic people. And that’s wonderful!
also can I add to this:
cats like to show their affection just by sharing the same space. a cat will generally want to be in the same space as you, even if you’re not really interacting and are half way across the room. still hanging out!
they don’t always want to be touched, and can be easily overstimulated by physical affection.
they don’t like to make eye contact.
their body language is often misinterpreted- and then they are blamed for it, or have negative motivations ascribed to it. a cat following you around is stalking you instead of wanting to hang out. a cat that doesn’t want to make eye contact with you is ignoring you instead of being polite. a cat that lashes out because it’s over stimulated, or you ignored their body language telling you to leave them alone is suddenly an asshole who hurt you for no reason.
I had this book as a child and I’m glad to see the comparison is so widely recognized too
I KEEP SAYING ALL CATS ARE AUTISTIC IM SO HAPPY THIS POST EXISTS PLEASE SOMEONE ARTISTIC MAKE A CAT WITH THE NEURODIVERGENT SYMBOL ON IT FOR AUTISM MASCOT :D
The book above has been updated to better align with the current understanding of autism as well!!
