Althouse: "The last thing dogs want to know is that they're helping cats."

January 1, 2018

"The last thing dogs want to know is that they're helping cats."

8 comments:

JML said...: https://tinyurl.com/ybmrol4q

Happy New Year...to all but cats...; 1/1/18, 2:55 PM
Jupiter said...: I don't think I would have lasted very long working for Trump.; 1/1/18, 3:05 PM
Wince said...: Like Marc Anthony?; 1/1/18, 3:58 PM
Unknown said...: Whereas Harold Bloom seems content to state that "Freud Proust Joyce and Kafka" - without differentation as to quality - are the "key" writers of the 20th Century (as he explains on the free Amazon Books preview of "How To Read and Why" - hi Natahsa!)) - I would like to say that the key animals for those of us who know that animals care about us and feel affection for us are the dog, the cat, the monkey, and the crow: of which, the monkey and the crow are generally happier without us. Sure there are other obscure animals out there with similar capabilities, and similar writers who Bloom would be just as impressed by: but I will settle for (as of date) having been the 'companion animal' to dogs for more than 40 dog years and to cats for more than 10 cat years. I never had the Benjamins it takes to have a monkey in the house (at least in the continental US) and as for crows, I never would want to keep one of them away from the vast world of nature, urban or otherwise, which they so exult in. But each of the many cats and dogs who lived in my home had, I pray, few complaints.

Anyway, Cats generally cannot achieve the oftentimes (but not always) guttural syllables dogs can (for the linguists, I am speaking of schwas, open and closed vowels, that sort of thing, which almost all come easier to the average Dog than to the average Cat, God bless their hearts, anyway) but I have met more than one cat that knows how to express, heart to heart, appreciation, fondness, and deep gratitude for the gentle habits of mutual respect of which they and we, at our best, are capable.

These are things you learn when you live with lots of dogs and cats. Let us not be jealous of the rich, who have so little time for the simple dogs and cats of our day.; 1/1/18, 6:32 PM
buwaya said...: Having been a tropical resident, we have known a few people who have kept monkeys. Its a rather eccentric affectation even where its easy enough to get a monkey. They make poor pets, ill tempered, mischievous, smelly, with filthy habits.
Snakes make better (or easier) pets.
I knew several who kept pythons.; 1/1/18, 7:38 PM
Unknown said...: buwaya - undoubtedly they did not understand monkeys.

I understand monkeys. They need to be kept constantly amused.

If they are bored, they are bad pets: if amused: the heart of the monkey is perhaps the kindest (not counting dogs, cats, and crows, and their like) --- yes, perhaps the kindest heart in the world, next to a human heart.

Of course, they do have filthy habits: but who doesn't, when you think about it? Sadly, we live, as Auden liked to say before he got old, in a world of filth and we try always to love each other anyway. Plus, maybe there are wonderful youtube videos in our future that will teach us how to wean the monkeys away from their filthy habits.

I would like to argue with Auden on a lot of things - but his heart was in the right place.

That being said, the fraction of people who will be successful at having a monkey in the house as a pet is about one in ten thousand, and that fraction is not going to change very much in the next few decades. So not only today, but also fifty years from now, we are talking rocket scientist rarity. As you correctly point out, having a monkey as a pet is not the sort of thing that should be encouraged, as a rule. I would not recommend it to anyone I know, except Natasha (hi Natasha!), who lives in Montreal, where, sadly, it is for most of the year too cold to take monkeys for their customary afternoon walks, and ... well, nobody else (I guess I am lucky --- I do not know anywhere near 10,000 people -- and yet I know someone who - besides myself -is a credibly potentially successful friend of a domestic monkey!); 1/1/18, 8:01 PM
Achilles said...: To understand cats you have to realize that they would eat you if they could. If well fed they spend their time tormenting things smaller than them. Once you get over that hurdle they are relatively simple creatures.

Monkeys seem like extraordinarily strong and agile 2 year olds without diapers. No direct experience just what I hear.

Chickens are another misunderstood "pet." They are truly stupid and vicious creatures. Watch what happens when one chicken in a group gets weak/sick. They are very abusive to each other.; 1/1/18, 8:47 PM
Unknown said...: Achilles - those are chimps you are describing, I think.

Chimps should never live with people in the same home. Extremely dangerous.

On further consideration, I think I was wrong about (non-chimp) monkeys. I don't think anyone - not even a 1 in 10,000 monkey-expert person (which I am not: adjusting for the Dunning Kruger effect, I am,with respect to monkeys, probably 1 in 50 at best) is good and patient enough with animals to have a monkey living in the house as a pet. Dr Doolittle was fiction.; 1/2/18, 8:00 AM