Alright, I usually save cat and dog blogging for other feminist bloggers, like Jessica. But all the joke pet blogging and feminist confessions of love for our animals made me realize I just have to share and also let you know, my pets are the cutest. Yeah, I said it. Anyway, I am totally with Cara, dogs drool, cats rule. You know that gene that women are supposed to get that makes them "nurturing." Well, I didn't get it, so cats work better for me. They are pretty and know how to clean themselves, they are generally self-sufficient, I don't have to walk them (they are smart enough to go to the bathroom on their own) and they don't bark or hump people's legs.
Meet the Mukhopadhyay family pets:
This is Guillermo, aka Gwermu, Gwerm, Germ, Garmu and Marmu. He moved with me all the way from California to NY. What a brave little kitty!
This is Imani and she is the cutest cat to have existed in recorded history. She generally doesn't have time for others, she is busy worrying about cat things.
And this is Kitty on the right and Lochsmon on the left. Kitty is 21, I have had her since I was 9 and she is not doing very well, so we are sad about that, but we are happy we have had her this long. Lochsmon on the left, he is blind and deaf, he is only 8 years old, but he had a pancreatic disorder which led to brain damage and loss of eyesight, mobility and hearing. This is where you get to call bullshit on my inability to nurture, I take care of this cat as though it is a baby.
Now we can all go die of teh cute overloadness.
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Gawd! They even have cute names!
props for taking care of a disabled animal
OMG Maine Coones! (Or two very Maine Coonish cats) Imani looks so much like my Millinocket. Good luck taking care of the sick babies!
I adore kitties.
Aww =^_^=!!! I think that we should strive for true equality between cats and dogs! I am a cat person, though. I have two- a white devon rex and a mutt-ish foster home cat
So cuuuute!
I have a kitty who will be 20 in April, so hello fellow owned person of an old kitty cat!
I LOVE cats so much! That's all I ever had growing up was cats. Dogs are good too but I just don't get as attatched, probably because I never grew up with them.
So this might all just be in my head, but it seems like a majority of people hate cats because they subconsciously tend to equate cats=female dogs=male.
Anywho,I could NEVER understand why people hated them, and why cats have this "unloving" reputation when all my cats have been nothing but LOVING and so affectionate. My sisters cat like puts her paws on my sisters cheeks and just stares at her and licks her chin, like my sister is her mommy lol.
This blog reminds me of an xkcd comic. The one where it shows a graph of a person and their intelligence, and then the person near and cat and shows the person's intelligence plummet. As in, sentences go from "I like cats" to "OMG a kitteh!"
I agree, I love cats, they are so wonderful. The only reason cats are seen as not loving is because they don't beg for attention all the time, and tend to bite to tell you they don't want it anymore. Whenever I'm in a bad mood over anti-feminist sexism, I always watch kittens on youtube. My boyfriend and I plan to get siamese kittens after we move into together. For now, I have Aisha, the best cat ever.
"You're a kitty!"
http://xkcd.com/231/
Thanks for the link, PG!
LL - Good choice on the Siamese! The ones bred for show kind of creep me out, though, cos the pointier the face the better. Most of the ones we had growing up had apple faces. :D
Good luck with getting Siameses. We've always had one (as well as a black short hair for a while), and tried to get ones with more rounded faces.
My mom was always big on Siamese cats; she grew up with them. She likes how vocal they are...always letting you know what they think about things, especially if they think you aren't adoring them enough.
shelter or rescue adopt! don't buy from a breeder! i've seen some siamese preciosas at my local shelter, and i'm sure there are some near you as well. :)
/two cents.
I don't normally post, just read and learn but I thought I'd share.
Meet Speck:
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9813/speckip8.jpg
Flower (the mum) and Simon (and my attempt at humor):
http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=1690703
Rescued from a bin in our street where someone tried to drown them as day old kittens.
I don't normally post here, just read and learn but to break the habit...
Meet Speck:
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9813/speckip8.jpg
Flower (the mum) and Simon (and my attempt at humor):
http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=1690703
Someone found them when they were ~one day old, put them in a bag and threw it into a pond near our house, we saw the mother going berserk at the side of the pond, saw the bag, rescued the kittens and adopted the family :)
Your cats are very cute (as were mine), but do we really need to bad-mouth dogs in the process? My dog lets me know when he has to go to the bathroom, and I just let him outside. The only extra step is opening the back door. I guess it's less convenient for dogs who live in apartments or don't have a fence. But even if we lived in an apartment, my dog would still tell me when he had to go out, so I still wouldn't have to guess when he had to go or risk him having an accident. My dog also has never humped anything in his life. And he's really smart. Let's not judge all dogs poorly just because a few have some unfavorable characteristics.
I don't think that the vast majority of dogs fit any of those negative stereotypes unless they have VERY poorly trained owners. That and people pick dogs based on how they look or what people/puppy eyes guilt them into picking instead of researching to find a breed that fits their lifestyle. Saint Bernard in an apartment? Probably living hell.
I've owned dogs in apartments my entire adult life and can't imagine being without them.
Sure, sometime's its a paint to take them out on lazy lazy days but I know that its GREAT to have something I love loving me back by making me exercise :)
I too am a cat person (although I like dogs as well I just would never own one) and yours are sooo cute! Kitty looks just like my oldest cat Licorice who just passed away at the ripe old age of 18 this last summer. I can't believe Kitty is 21. That's amazing!
The cat I own now is named Misha and I love her as if she were my child. She is almost 5 and is a black and white mane coon type (prettiest cat you've ever seen I swear!). When I lived in New Orleans I was actually out of town when Hurricane Katrina hit (I was only gone two days so I had just left her behind with a big pile of food and asked a friend to look in on her). Well my friend left town without getting her (thanks buddy!) so she was stranded at my house. I went crazy thinking I she was dead for about a month because no one could get back into the city. Then one day my landlord was able to go back and found her outside my house. Luckily a window had broken in the storm and she had escaped and lived under my house feeding on roaches and mice and whatnot. She was about half the size when I had left her, but otherwise she was fine. So ever since then we have called her my little miracle kitty.
Sorry for the long story, I just love my little kitty :)
Samhita, your cats are so cute!! They remind me of my kitty, Cranberry (Maine Coon). She looks a LOT like Imani.
Cats really are the best. There's something about cat babies that makes me feel a way human babies never will. I'd do anything for CBear.
Awww your cats are beautiful!
I think I'm missing the CAT gene! I'm a dog lady all the way and have two cavalier king charles spaniels for the very reason that they are needy emotional love-sponges.
They just soak in love, amplify it and return it twentyfold. I'm young and single and live in the cold, superficial world of Los Angeles and they are the CUTEST EVR kthnx ;)
The internet is a great place to brag about pets!
I second greenhatcat and AnUnfunnyFeminist's sentiments about this whole dogs vs cats thing. I don't have any animosity towards cats, but dogs will always have my heart.
"You know that gene that women are supposed to get that makes them "nurturing." Well, I didn't get it, so cats work better for me."
I didn't get that gene either. Dogs don't want or need "nurturing". Dogs want sustenance, a warm place to sleep, someone to play with now and then, a family or "pack" to belong to, and the love, affection, protection, and respect they will repay in kind.
"They are pretty and know how to clean themselves,"
Dogs are drop-dead gorgeous, whether it's because they're adorable, cute, pretty, handsome, have a rakish charm, or have a face only their humans could love. And that includes mutts and dogs with only three legs.
"I don't have to walk them (they are smart enough to go to the bathroom on their own) and they don't bark or hump people's legs."
Dogs can't help that they need physical exercise and walking is good for their humans anyway. They are smart enough to go to the bathroom on their own, it isn't their fault that they don't have opposable thumbs and that doggy doors aren't widespread. Past the puppy stage, a badly behaved dog (chewing shoes, digging holes, humping people's legs, barking excessively etc)is either an unhappy dog or a dog who has never been taught how he/she is expected to behave. Can you blame dogs for expressing themselves in the only way they know how? Dogs are just trying to make sense of the confusing human world they live in, they want to please and to feel a sense of belonging, all they need is a little guidance along the way.
I do think it often has a lot to do with whether you grew up with cats or dogs. Throughout my childhood and adolescence, my immediate family and I owned and loved two cats and eight dogs.
I don't own a dog right now because I'm living in an apartment, but I desperately miss them, and I'm always as happy to see them as they are to see me when I go back home. Whenever I see a dog, I can't help fawning over it. Dogs have such different, individual personalities but they all share the same capacity for love.
It's interesting how the love for cats and the love of dogs manifest themselves differently. You don't really see dog lovers posting pictures of puppies as often as you see cat lover posting kittens. I think dog lovers may have a quieter love for their dogs. Having said that, ihasahotdog.com is pretty cute.
Somewhat relevant to this post: http://ihasahotdog.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/funny-dog-pictures-dog-is-taken-prisoner-by-cats.jpg
http://ihasahotdog.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/funny-dog-pictures-dog-and-cat-have-a-situation.jpg
I'm OK with dogs, but I suppose I've always been raised to believe that dogs need a lot more attention than cats during the day, and thus I'd feel absolutely terrible leaving a dog crated indoors or chained/electric fenced outside for 10 hours at a time. It doesn't seem like even a well-behaved dog can just be given the run of the house for that period of time.
I do feel badly about leaving my cat alone all day (though honestly she's happy enough with daytime naps on the radiator), but certainly my schedule isn't what it was 19 years ago (when I was all of five). I do the best I can by giving her plenty of affection when I get home at night.
PS. If Kitty is having trouble with hopping on beds, Samhita, consider investing in a $20 pair of "doggy stairs". My cat has a little arthritis, so I purchased a set of little stairs for her to use.
OK, I guess I like dogs now.
NOOOOOOOOO! Do not give into the Patriarchs pet of choice! Your feminist card WILL BE REVOKED!
I spot a Maine coon! They're my favorite breed.
(I prefer dogs over cats because I had a cat when I was young and several unfortunate dog attacks. Now I just need to find a cat who doesn't mind being walked.)
I cannot believe you came down on the side of the kitty collective Samhita. Teh kitties may be cute but the dog loving feminist revolution will not be denied.
Look into these eyes. Do you still have the heart to say cats are better than dogs?
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g20/hoorayforculture/pups.jpg
I love both species equally. Cats are great for settling into a book or some knitting, dogs are wonderful to take hiking. I have one cat; her name is Fang and she's 5 lbs short-haired dilute calico. She is recovering right now from a spaying-gone-awry incident yesterday (she reacted to the anesthesia and her heart stopped--the vet brought her back with epinephrine).
Hmmph... looks like they'd be good with some ketchup.
~crazy cat lady, minus 40 years
haha, my cat Nemo + knitting = disaster...I've tried to knit around her, but it just isn't safe, for the knitting and yarn at least. :)
I used to have a cat that looked exactly like Guillermo! We had to put her down last year (her kidneys failed and none of us had the time, let alone the money, to keep a kitty on dialysis), but seeing your cat brought back the memories.
Thanks for posting the pictures!
Mr. ShifterCat is, we sometimes joke, an honorary crazy cat lady. So we've got four.
I used to think I disliked dogs, but really it's just certain dog owners. Most of them are ok.
Oh, yeah? Well I think dogs AND cats drool and PARROTS rule!
I just have to say that Guillermo is absolutely gorgeous, but then, I always say that about black cats. I really hope you rescued these kitties....
I think Silver Hands is right, in that it really comes down to what you're used to. I've only had cats, so I'm more of a cat person. Dogs seem like such high maintenance. Cats don't get separation anxiety; they know how to look after themselves when you're out of the house, which is a major plus for me. Dogs NEED to be walked and played with, cats just need food and a daily scritching.
THANK YOU Samhita! After Jessica blogged about dogs my poor little kitties didn't feel like they were getting fair representation! Your kitties are adorable.
my babies:
http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v194/243/116/5300954/n5300954_35002881_5100.jpg
But I love dogs too. I've just never had any for my own. I love animals, really, in general.
Cat person here. I just added a fourth to my household. However, this kitty pulled a fast one. She was hanging around the back yard, looking very skinny. I set out dishes of food and then she came inside. I named her Audrey because she was such a waif and Audrey Hepburn always seemed "waify" to me. Yesterday she went to the vet, with plans to stay overnight and be spayed today. Well... turns out she is around 7 years old, and "she" is actually a "he", a neutered male. Audrey is now Brandon - I was turning over names in my head and that was the one that stuck.
He joins a family of Orlando (at the time Orlando, formerly feral kitten, walked in, I had a very old cat Rosalind, the survivor of two sisters named for the heroines of As You Like It, and Orlando was the name of Rosalind's beloved in the play). I later added the two kittens of Orlando's untamable sister (I had her spayed, then let her go). Since they were displaying such a repertoire of leaps, turns and spins, it was obvious they'd be ballet dancers when they grew up so I named them Margot (Fonteyn) and Rudy (Nureyev).
I don't like dogs much. It does not help that the dog down the street shits in my yard 4 or 5 times a week. I've had to dig out and throw away food crops and throw away a pair of sneakers when I could not get the shit out of the treads. I'm planning on fencing my entire yard, at a cost of a few thousand dollars I can't afford, to keep the damn dog out since its humans won't keep it in.
Cats are feminist animals, they never grovel, never apologize for what they did not do, and remain wild at heart no matter how long they live indoors.
House cats also kill other animals for fun. Sometimes, they bring their kill to you, which one could argue is an act of groveling. I don't know how any of what you said supports the idea that cats are particularly feminist as opposed to other animals.
This whole blog "war" is a joke. We're crafting satirical posts that make light of our usual analyses of serious topics.
Your username is really quite ironic if you really didn't get that.
I didn't know you could speak for the other commenters here. You must be real special. Tell me what I'm thinking.
i'd like to NOM on that Imani belly.
NOM NOM NOM :-D