Related to my "meanness of kind people" post recently, Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche just put up Pets as Substitute Children, with interesting data. It has been long noticed, and some cat owners are quite explicit that they like cats better than human children. In fact, they go out of their way to mention it at times. I have wondered if they also like the sexual irresponsibility of cats - they certainly laughingly talk about how Mr. Whiskers has been a bad boy often enough. I just noticed that I am talking exclusively about female cat owners. I wonder if AI illustration automatically chooses a female when asked to portray a cat owner.
Cats have never come up much as a topic around here as my wife is allergic. I like pets in small doses, much preferring dogs. I have always been uncomfortable with the language of pets as children. "Fur babies,""Granddoggies" and all that.
I have a cat, though I don’t know if I would say that I own him. His name is Gandalf because he is perfectly grey.
ReplyDeleteOne of my co-workers says that dog show people are precisely the sort who treat their pets as their kids.
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