Art according to Xenia H.I.M, Empress of all she surveys:
The remarkable consensus among cats is that they invented great art. Humans merely did a monkey see, and monkeys do routine in admiration of the feline example.
Kittens do roister about, but adult cats inherit an elegant poise from the feline mistress of creation. This model inspired the dramatic arts of ancient Greece, the might of the Sphinx, poetry, and great literature.
Now it is true that cats did not invent all art, only great art. As my cousins in Florida, Canada, England, and Virginia agree, melodrama is an invention of dogs. I mean, watch them piteously roll about seeking the affection of those pathetic humans. With those great carbuncles of noses, only a human could love them. Hummphhh!
Well, it’s time for the mid-morning snack, TTFN!
With great thanks to Lois for promting this post!
Perfect! Right down to the ‘carbuncle’ of a dog nose. Another amazing post, Xenia–Felines of Florida
“And many thanks to the Florida cousins for promoting this exposition of feline intellectual prominence.” – Xenia
Cats are both the artist and the work of art!
They are a very graceful animal, too; the way they walk, especially. … Definitely God’s artistic side went into this feline creation.
Many people can appreciate the reciprocally healthy, perhaps even somewhat symbiotic, relationships that can exist between pet cats and their lovingly appreciative human owners/hosts, especially when the host lives with physical and/or mental ailments. Whenever I observe anxiety in the facial expression of my aging mother, I can also witness how that stress suddenly drains and is replaced with joyful adoration upon her cat entering the room. “Hi, sweetheart,” she’ll say. Countless other seniors, and non-seniors, with a cat(s) also experience its emotional benefits.
Still, with their vertical slit pupils and Hollywood-cliché fanged hiss when confronted, in a world mostly hostile toward snakes (including me), cats may have a permanent PR problem with much of humankind, despite their Internet adorable-pet dominance. [Quite frankly, I’ve long found that along with human intelligence comes the seemingly proportional reprehensible potential for malice for malice’s sake.]
Perhaps pet cats have a beneficial effect on the human psyche that most people still cannot fathom thus appreciate, a quality that makes losing that pet someday such an immense grief. My own cat’s qualities, especially his non-humanly innocence, would make losing him a great heart break, as were the losses of pet felines preceding him.
I believe that, only when overpopulations of unwanted cats are greatly reduced in number by responsible owners consistently spaying/neutering their felines might these beautiful animals’ presence be truly appreciated. … Beautiful yet often misunderstood, prejudged and unjustly despised animals, cats are!
Rarity does often spur appreciation, but not always for the reasons of appreciation, and you are right about the perversity of human nature. There are many who should not be allowed pets. Some jerk in CT just was arrested for taping a puppy’s mouth closed.
People are sometimes oblivious to the evil that they do – I am reminded of a quote that goes something along the lines of, “evil get up every morning just like you and I do and puts their pants on one leg at a time.” They truly don’t perceive themselves to be doing evil – they are narcissists or worse.
A British Columbia community newspaper editor wrote a column about Sarnia, Ontario courthouse protestors demanding justice in 2014 for a cat shot in the head 17 times with a pellet gun, destroying an eye. Within her piece, the editor rather recklessly declared: “Hey crazy people, it’s [just] a cat.”
In a follow-up column, the editor expressed surprise at having then received some very angry responses, including a few implied threats, from cat lovers and animal rights activists. Apparently, she couldn’t relate to the intensely heartfelt motivation behind the public outrage, regardless of it being directed at such senseless cruelty to an innocent animal; therefore the demonstrators were somehow misguided. … The court may have also perceived it so, as the charges against the two adult-male perpetrators were dropped.
The editor had also noted how disturbed she was to learn of (unrelated) opinion poll results revealing that the vast majority of pet owners would choose saving the life of their pet over that of another person. She was astonished, regardless of the hypothetical other person being a complete stranger.
I wrote to her that, to me, it makes perfect sense: Especially with their pets’ un-humanly innocence, how could the owners not put their beloved animal’s life first?
Animal cruelty is now a felony offense in many jurisdictions, including mine. Having run into a number of A-holes in life I’d definitely step on their faces to save an animal. I’m not bashful about admitting that people who take the attitude that it’s only a——- are only one step removed from saying that it’s only a —(name your ethnicity, race, or religion). These things are interrelated and people like that I automatically take note of so that I never rely on them, trust them or take seriously anything that they say without independent verification. That this person was an editor of a newspaper is particularly offensive.
You always have to remember that the person who’d damage one innocent today, may, with impunity, go after you tomorrow.
Well said! …
A perhaps pertinent fact I failed to include in my post, however, was that the editor spent her life on a family farm, so that may have created a bit of toughness/callousness towards the assaulted cat’s suffering.
I should also mention that a different Canadian news-media professional had widely publicized her contempt for cats — without stating any reason why!
“I never liked cats,” the otherwise-progressive national commentator (Vicky Mochama) proclaimed in one of her syndicated columns. In another she wrote that Canadian politicians should replace their traditional unproductively rude heckling with caterwauling: “My vote is for meowing because I don’t like cats and I’d like to sabotage their brand as much as possible. So if our elected politicians are going to be disrespectful in our House of Commons, they might as well channel the animal that holds us all in contempt.”
I search-engined the Internet but found nothing as to the reason(s) behind her publicized anti-feline sentiments. Still, if her motives were expressed, perhaps she’d simply say, ‘I just do not like cats.’