I was discussing with someone too, my very under developed concept of animal ownership as a form of parasitism. The whole idea of taking something that could live on its own and providing food and shelter for it in exchange for it's company. It's sort of liking c
hoosing a parasite to take home and raise until its death. Obviously this is an outrageous example, but what if we humans were all swept up in a new tapeworm craze. We'd feed and shelter them and they'd be our bestest friend ever who could never leave us. I'm sure we'd get them to do tricks for us and bring them to tapeworm shows to compete for longest worm. Now, this is an extreme example, but when we get a cat, they are living off us. They infect us with their personality and vise versa, and not to mention all their actual parasites they bring along with them. Like when Kiki gave me cat-Scratch fever. http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_scratch_diseaseIt doesn't seem like that bad a parasite but it was actually one of the worst expereinces of my life. I've been keeping my eye out for a virus I can catch to give her but haven't found one that goes human to cat yet.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
of Murr and man
I'm really enjoying the Tomcat Murr character because he, to me, is a real tomcat--besides his drive to get an education. Although I know my cat, Kiki, could very well be learning right under my nose and I wouldn't be the wiser. Murr knows hes the shit and he has doubts about man kinds' status in society. We humans are over confident of our perceived privilege among the animal kingdom. We've build empires, societies, cars and computers and have the power to speak and write about how awesome we are, but how many of us could survive if we were plopped in the forest and asked to fend for ourselves? many household cats couldn't, but its only their dependency on us that has caused them to lose their instinct.
watch this, since I can't figure out how to post the video below the text
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteme and my cat are one, through the blood of a flea
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is outrageous at all to suggest that pet ownership is a parasitic relationship. I definitely think that it is a bit strange the phenomenon that we worry so much about the idea of having something "leeching" off of you when, like you said, our household pets could easily live on their own had their instincts had time to develop.
ReplyDeleteA difference to point out between the relationship of a cat/human relationship vs. a tapeworm/human relationship is that cats can survive on their own whereas the tapeworm relies on a host to provide nutrients for survival.