People suck
I made a tactical error in my life yesterday.
I try to keep my inner cynic and depressive at bay, but yesterday i failed to protect myself from outside influenes.
First we went to see the movie Pan's Labyrinth. I knew it was going to be wrenching and sad so i set up an emotional wall. A porous wall, but solid enough to protect me from the worst of the emotional impact. So i was able to watch the movie, and my wall held up fairly well.
Last night the Mister and i watched Jarhead because we've had it for a few months from Netflix and it was time to watch it or send it back. I was okay up until the part where a frightened horse appeared in the desert covered with oil that was raining down from the burning oil fields.
I just can't bear it when animals are hurt or frightened by our wars
This morning. Em and i are at our cat cage cleaning gig at the cat adoption center. There was a twelve year old cat in one of the cages. Her owners had surrendered her because (and i quote) "she's not as playful anymore." She's twelve years old people! Of course she's not as playful .
What kind of people are we? Who could do a think like that? A healthy cat that they've had for 12 years and they just dump her off.
That's when i lost it and started crying. Em cried too when she read it. Here we are, the two of us locked into a small room with ten open cat cages and cats weaving around our legs, sobbing and clinging together.
I hate people right now, i really do.
(These are both excellent movies people. Don't let my comments prevent you from seeing either of them.)
29 comments:
I would have cried too. And probably taken the cat home. I hate knowing the world is not all puppies and rainbows, but we do what we can.
I wonder sometimes if attitudes like that are a product of our throw away society. We can buy anything we want at the snap of a finger, and when we're done we toss it. More and more things are being made with the specific purpose of being thrown away after one use. Perhaps, too many people have gotten so used to tossing things when they no longer suit their selfish or easy lifestyle that they find animals disposable - wonder how they feel about other humans? Perhaps another reason for so many divorces? Parent's needlessly in nursing homes? So on.
I would have cried too.
Disposable pets...now that is upsetting and disgusting. I don't know if I would have cried, but I certainly would have gotten angry.
That's a crime! How dare they even think of doing such a thing. There are some totally unfeeling people in this world I'm sad to say. I just love my cats and would hate seeing this. My eyes are tearing up as I type this...I'm going to give both my cats an extra big hug right now.
That makes me SO mad. What kind of people would be able to do this? When you have a pet, you have him/her for life AND pet lovers fall in love with their pets and would never, never give them away.
I'm really sensitive to animals in movies. People get killed in the movie, and I can blow it off, but hurt an animal, and I will completely lose it.
How do people like this live with themselves? Why is it that people who do the right thing always feel guilt and those who don't know what is right never feel it?
I'd like to be there when Karma walks through their door.
People do indeed suck. I was left at an animal shelter when I was three and a half because my previous owner "was bored with me" and I was there four months before I was rescued. My litter mate is also a rescue cat. As for loosing your shit, I can't conceive of better comforters than ten attention hungry cats and a sympathetic daughter.
So sorry to read that. People can be pretty selfish and uncaring.And animals don't talk back and cannot complain.
tay, i already have 3 cats, two of them from a shelter, or i would have taken her home too. I sure hope she's not still there next week or i might anyway.
maggie, i don't know the answer, unfortunately what you say makes sense, but those people still SUCK.
kelly, i am angry, but so sad for the kitty too. I hope those people ROT IN HELL!!!
MOI, i love my cats too, and could never do such a thing. It should be illegal, but then i guess they would just kill the cats.
lucia, yeah, i'm like that with the animals too. At least the people have an understanding of what is going on, the animals just have to trust us.
lu, i can't imagine how. I too would like to be watching when these people get dumped on by life.
patches, you are a lucky kitty. "Bored with me," i just can't stand it.
Sad, sad, sad. My pets are our kids. Fletch is 10, Zeus is 6, and Babyfred is 4. We just spent 5,000 we did not have in our checking account for Fletch to have major emergencey surgery. To us, there was no other option. So we slapped down our only credit card and said fix him, we will figure out what to do later.
All true. Glad though that the not as playful cat was left at a shelter instead of taken for a long ride and left somewhere to fend for itself.
Sounds like you are a really great mom as well as being a really great person. I think it is so admirable that you volunteer with your daughter, I'm sure you are teaching her lessons to last a lifetime.
Jenn
i'd say you didn't lose it so much as embrace it. the sadness and carelessness of it all.
what a valuable lesson for Em, too.
oh, and hey...I saw the Pan movie yesterday too. it's as if we saw it together or something. you know, almost.
I thought the story was going to end with you taking the cat home. It must be so hard to volunteer at the shelter. I think you should visualize some nice person adopting the cat, and maybe you will make it happen. Sounds silly, but it might work.
I agree with the comment about our being a disposable society. I am making a conscious effort to teach my girls (7 and 9) that "that's okay, we'll just get another one" is NOT an acceptable philosophy to take when something is old or broken.
We have four cats - one is 15 this year and the other three are 14 - and I can't imagine ever parting with them. I'm hoping it will be a good, long time before I have to.
If I lived there, I'd adopt that cat like a shot. But whoever its new owners are, they're going to be much nicer than its old ones. Bastards! I hope their kids put them in a home. One where they have to sleep in a small plastic box and eat dried food.
:-( poor kitties.
Whew. It must have helped that Em was there to provide some comfort. Any one of those things alone might have been too much for me. I hadn't heard of Pan's Labyrinth, so I just watched the trailer. It looks incredible. (I can't believe my friends blew me off for the movies last week! I'm going to that one, even if I have to sit with strangers.) I don't think I've seen a war movie since Saving Private Ryan. I am not a religious person, but I consider (at minimum) humane treatment to animals tantamount to a covenant. The love and dependence that entwine us with our pets should be a sacred bond... in sickness and in health, til death do us part. (Or you bite me!)
That's terrible! I recently lost my 18-year old cat and I would give anything to have him laying around doing nothing and "not being playful" for just a little bit longer.
Well, at least not all people suck, don't you think? Or maybe you will again tomorrow.
My inner cynic is sure that all people are dumb and suck, but I don't let her out much. Just put her inside pinkish-golden bubbles and look at the people who are neither. (Um, neither dumb nor suck, not neither pinkish nor golden...)
This is a culture of instant gratification, fast food and disposable people. The idea that dumping off a living being because it no longer meets the caretaker's entertainment needs is just a symptom of a much larger disease.
Blecht! Now I remember why I am a hermit.
Peace,
~Chani
sanjay, i hope that cat bit one of her former people on her way out the door!
ttq, i have done just that. We spent $1000 for orthopedic surgery after one of our cats broke his jaw many years ago when we did not have that money. He lived to be 16 and was a great gentleman of a cat.
luckyzmom, you are right about that. So i suppose i should be grateful that they cared that much. But i'm having a hard time with the grateful part.
jenn, i try to be a good mom, but i'm not sure if declaring that "people suck" qualifies me as a great person!
jen, was that you hogging all the popcorn? Beautiful movie huh?
d-man, i like the way you think. I hope so.
bo, i just can't take care of anymore critters. Plus my two boy cats would bully an older cat and make her life miserable.
mrs.chili, i hope it will be a long time too. We do love our kitties.
antonia, bastards indeed! I like the visual i am getting of these people in their box with kibble.
sari, i know. :(
de, i agree with you about the covenant. There's just no excuse for this.
biodtl, i am sorry about your kitty. Maybe you can go to a shelter when you are ready and adopt an older cat.
suzanne, no, of course not all people suck, look at all of us!
chani, i think i'll join you in your hremit cave. Can we bring pets?
Right on, d_man!
Sorry meno. I sympathize. Some people really shouldn't be allowed to have pets. Or children.
I agree with all the previous callers. Sick, unsustainable society we have here.
But the strays shall inherit the earth, right?
We're living with our third stray cat. We bought our dog from a pet store that was about to send him back to the puppy mill. Oh, excuse me, puppy _farm_. Yeah. Happy ending _there_.
That is exactly why I cannot volunteer at a humane shelter. I would come home with a new dog or cat every week. Maybe two.
But I really admire you for giving your time to those animals. At least there are people like you in the world to balance the pricks who give their cat away because she's not a kitten anymore.
God, meno, I would have done the same. The things that people do to animals are shocking to me.
You are a brave soul to give of yourself there. It would crush me.
I really want to see Pan's Labyrinth. I don't like it when trees or employees from Costco are injured in movies.
I'm always afraid that I'd bring home every animal if I worked at a shelter. And a kill place? Forget about it.
Seeing/hearing/reading about an abused or abandoned animal or child breaks my heart every time.
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