tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post228224010701219635..comments2024-03-27T12:58:00.592-07:00Comments on Snowbrush: Sacred Beings Entrusted to My CareSnowbrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-47083617121836173182019-11-29T12:36:51.073-08:002019-11-29T12:36:51.073-08:00Winifred, one thing that will help me--somewhat--t...Winifred, one thing that will help me--somewhat--to let go of these kittens is the fact that I'm seventy years old, and can expect to be dead (according to the actuarial tables), long before they are.<br /><br />As to old people adopting cats, it's good to bear in mind that the cats most in need of homes are also old and will be murdered (I think the word euthanasia constitutes an obscenity in such cases) unless someone wants them. Perhaps, your kittens will someday be in such a position, yet I can well understand why you kept them.Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-82834619331759257192019-11-29T12:02:03.450-08:002019-11-29T12:02:03.450-08:00It will be hard to let them go they are so lovely....It will be hard to let them go they are so lovely.<br /><br />When our last cat died age 21 we decided we were too old to have another cat as it would outlive us. My daughter had other ideas & suggested we fostered I was very wary about getting attached to them. However the lady that runs a local cat rescue (from her home) needed fosterers so she could have a holiday & go to OZ to see some elderly friends she hadn't seen for many years. I gave in to the sob story & two lovely 7 months old kittens arrived. They were so friendly, well behaved & ate everything put down to them to eat, unlike our previous picky cats. <br />I let them go back after the lady's holiday but should have known I wouldn't be able to part with them, I missed them so much that I asked if I could adopt them permanently. That was a year ago! I was totally useless as a fosterer.<br />Hope you & Peggy are better at letting go then I was.<br />Winifredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12415302188575538163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-2556110596547628012019-11-29T10:28:11.488-08:002019-11-29T10:28:11.488-08:00"Someone who views them as sacred beings is s..."Someone who views them as sacred beings is surely going to be the best foster carer."<br />True. I feel honored rather than burdened. Because I make no distinction between the importance of a person and that of a cat or a dog, I derive as much joy from helping these kittens as I would from a child. Peggy looks around and sees her furniture draped and her decorations missing. I look around and see kittens. I don't mean to say that she doesn't also love them, but that it's easier for me to give some things up because I've wanted to do this for a lot of years, and it's as rewarding as I hoped. Cats need for their people to move slowly, talking softly, and never lose their temper; by forcing these changes upon me, they are making me a better person.Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-25572820752385752992019-11-29T03:25:12.539-08:002019-11-29T03:25:12.539-08:00I'm pleased that you foster kittens and I expe...I'm pleased that you foster kittens and I expect three is probably not a lot more work than two. Someone who views them as sacred beings is surely going to be the best foster carer.<br />"Bonded siblings" is an interesting idea, most times litters are separated without ill effect.<br /><br />kyliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08964475783207438103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-86453392325693030492019-11-26T11:53:45.292-08:002019-11-26T11:53:45.292-08:00"I've never been able to understand why I..."I've never been able to understand why I've spent so many years being verbally attacked for trying to be kind and save lives."<br /><br />You are being attacked by people who have value having a certain taste in their mouths more than they value the lives and happiness of other species, and so it is that your desire to reduce the cruelty that they're engaging in leaves them feeling judged for their unwillingness to do the same, and this will be true no matter how kindly you treat them. By contrast, let's say you had some disease or allergy that would make it fatal for you to eat meat, they might find it damn inconvenient if they wanted to cook for you, but they would surely be more understanding because the issue of morality would be absent from the equation. That said, it is also true that we humans are a pack species, and pack species demand conformity. I have seen chickens gang up and peck to death other chickens that, for reasons invisible to humans, didn't fit in, and we humans aren't so very different from chickens. By way of example, let's say that you didn't do drugs, yet all your friends were druggies, or else you were an atheist, yet all your friends were devout believers, you must surely see that there would be conflict.<br /><br />"So fish die for Rosie to live, yes."<br /><br />People will always have pets, and no bird or rabbit can take the place of a dog or cat, yet in having predators for pets, we make the decision that our enjoyment of such pets outweighs the value that we place upon other lives. We might regret the loss of those lives, yet we still choose to end them. As Thoreau put it: "Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice." I know that one of the things that I love about cats and dogs is their innocence because while no human who isn't thoroughly ignorant or depraved can kill without some degree of remorse, cats and dogs clearly can because that's how evolution made them. I look for indications of compassion in them, but where killing is concerned, I find none, yet how ironic that it is we who are forever looking for an excuse to bathe the earth in the blood of ourselves and other species.<br /><br />"I'm very rarely allergic to dogs..."<br /><br />It's not the cat's fur, as you probably know, but the dander that gets to people, and for some reason, the dander of cats is worse than that of dogs. Peggy doesn't sneeze, but she breaks out anytime a cat touches her face--something that she never did with dogs--and I don't know if, in this case, the dander is to blame or the oil in the fur.Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-16794583613452674882019-11-26T11:53:30.851-08:002019-11-26T11:53:30.851-08:00"I would find it hard to let go of them, but ..."I would find it hard to let go of them, but it's really about practicality and what's best for the cats..."<br /><br />Our three kittens would surely elect to stay here, but then we couldn't take other fosters.<br /><br />"...we are now at a stage where meat is being grown in a lab."<br /><br />I have no idea if that's being done here on a commercial scale, but, as a person, I still wouldn't want to eat it because I would associate the taste with killing.<br /><br />"Making anyone feel terrible for eating meat is not only pointless, it actively makes the meat-eaters hate the vegans more..."<br /><br />It's funny that you're a vegan and, while I don't eat meat or fowl, I do eat fish, and I do eat eggs and dairy in the full knowledge that it necessitates cruelty and death to millions of young bulls and baby roosters, yet I take a harder line on veganism than you do. In reading your argument (which you've kindly shared with me previously through emails), I'm reminded of the movie Schindler's List in which Schindler was forever trying to persuade the brutal camp commandant to cut back on murder. By the same token, by trying to persuade meat-eaters to cut back on cruelty and death in the assumption that it will do more good in the longrun, you are resigned to reducing--rather than eliminating--cruelty and death in the short term. While you feel good about that, it would ring false if I did it because my inner thought would be unkind. If I didn't live with Peggy, I would definitely experiment with a more plant-based diet, but I do live with Peggy, and I also love fish. One benefit to me as a person of not being vegan is that I have less grounds to be contemptuous of meat-eaters, and given my low opinion of my species, this has the effect of making my life a little easier, but even so, I don't respect meat eaters as much as I respect non meat eaters because I know that in them, as in myself, a diet that is based on either the bodies of, or the products of, animals is a diet of cruelty.<br /> <br />cont.Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-40015139155137382802019-11-26T06:51:28.564-08:002019-11-26T06:51:28.564-08:00What a happy joyful post! I love that you're f...What a happy joyful post! I love that you're fostering, it's such a kind thing to do, a friend of mine did the same with dogs for a while, before she ended up with a job that meant she had to settle down with just the one dog. I would find it hard to let go of them, but it's really about practicality and what's best for the cats and you and Peggy are shining examples of that. <br /><br />So far as the meat issue goes we are now at a stage where meat is being grown in a lab. It is safe to eat, not full of all the drugs pumped into cattle and the other poor sods bred for such purposes. Cruelty free. I've talked to many vets and they all say that dogs can live a healthy diet on specially prepared vegetarian dog food. I also know people who have only fed their dogs said food and the dogs lived full healthy lives. Lardy is also a great example of that, though Bill would give her bits of bobs that set her stomach off like hide chews and old bones. Cats aren't so easy, and I am not someone who would ever make an animal suffer simply to save another animals life, so at present feeding them meat is necessary, as I say, once lab-grown it won't be. I think the main thing people need to understand about a cruelty free/vegan way of life is that it isn't there to be torn apart by people who are doing so purely because they feel guilty at being made to feel less worthy, just because someone else wishes to save life and stop unnecessary torture. The key is - do your best - if doing your best is having one meat free day a week then you are thinking about it and slowing down the demand. If it's choosing to be vegetarian then so be it, and onwards. Making anyone feel terrible for eating meat is not only pointless, it actively makes the meat-eaters hate the vegans more and therefore make the vegans feel terrible. All that's needed is some thought and understanding. I've never been able to understand why I've spent so many years being verbally attacked for trying to be kind and save lives. Disagree all you want, it's your life, but the attacks simply build the fences higher between them. As it happens Rosie has pancreatitis, and because of this the only diet she can tolerate is a grain free blend that has all the nutrients and some fish in it. The vet said so much of the dog food sold today is so fatty it causes pancreatitis itself and all that grain isn't good either. He actually feeds his dog the same food we do with Rosie and he was always impressed at how well Lardy did on her diet. So fish die for Rosie to live, yes. I'm very happy that within my lifetime I believe all humans and pets will have the option of eating lab-grown meat which would take away the whole torturing/keeping pregnant all the time/tiny cages/live male chicks in the grinder business completely. I feel I've been walking into a storm face on for so long and finally, finally the sun is beginning to peek through, and people are thinking about what they eat and that if needed, ( for instance taking just one vitamin pill a day of B12 instead of keeping the death toll going - oh the deprivation. (you can get B12 with a vegan diet but it takes some thought for the foods eaten, however many, many meat eaters are deficient in B12 too, I have a friend who was horrified to discover his solid traditional diet left him without enough B12)). Anyway on I've gone. <br /><br />If I entered your house I would sneeze for a week on Monday, hahahahaha, but much like any animal lover, I'd get over it and I do find exposure to specific cats for a while make me less allergic. I'm very rarely allergic to dogs - only ones with huge coats who fill the air with hair all the time. I met two Newfoundlands who did this and though my head was going to explode hahahahaStarshine Twinkletoeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07514915817931693980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-39744210683676476632019-11-24T15:16:39.027-08:002019-11-24T15:16:39.027-08:00Sue, it helps to introduce cats to one another as ...Sue, it helps to introduce cats to one another as kittens, or at least when one of them is a kitten, which is how our four cats were introduced. In other words, we got one cat, and when he was grown, got a second cat, a kitten. Then, when that cat was grown, we got another kitten, and we ndid the same with the final cat. Our four grown cats love one another, and three of them are showing affection to the kittens, although it was a lot of newness to begin with, our four cats being actually frightened by the newbies. I've heard it speculated that the fear of a grown cat for a strange kitten might be nature's way of protecting the kitten while he or she is still young and ever so vulnerable.<br /><br />Cats and dogs can also be close friends, but again, the younger they are introduced, the better.Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-90029808467620979062019-11-24T13:13:48.594-08:002019-11-24T13:13:48.594-08:00Good for you and Peggy. You seem to get so much jo...Good for you and Peggy. You seem to get so much joy from this. I wonder about this organization's requirement for a house to have another animal in it. I have had cats, cats and dogs and although the dogs always tried to make friends with the cats, the cats wanted to be left alone nor would the cats ever be friendly to each other. I did adopt a very young kitten , so tiny that she could barely stand who bonded to my husky and slept within his arms.<br /><br />I would have had a hard time too putting down the animals.Sue in Italia/In the Land Of Cancerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11146373251097877539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-15176772224584261962019-11-23T09:23:08.495-08:002019-11-23T09:23:08.495-08:00The last letter I found from you was written in Au...The last letter I found from you was written in August. I must have overlooked it somehow, but I will go and answer it now.Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-45915047315899293742019-11-23T07:59:29.511-08:002019-11-23T07:59:29.511-08:00Hi Snowy. Happy to read this post. Hope very muc...Hi Snowy. Happy to read this post. Hope very much you're doing OK as I was unsure how you have been lately. I emailed recently just to see how things were with you and yours - now I know all's well. You are, I guess, almost certain to adopt at least one of your foster felines and wish you all the very best in that respect. Cheers, PhilipPhilipHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811831703263176415noreply@blogger.com