Talking Cats

WE WERE TALKING ABOUT CATS, as it seems I often am. Cats can be a topic somewhat like the weather; innocuous, agreeable, hard to argue about or engender controversy and resentment. She was a ninety year old lady I had known for awhile, and had mixed emotions about, having heard her say things like: "Nowhere in the Bible does it say that its OK to have women ministers". But she was saying all the right things about cats. About how she had had a cat for twenty years, but that it had died, and that her grief had been so great that for a long time she simply wasn't ready or able to obtain another cat, not enough time had passed since her loss. Somebody said that she must have taken very good care of it for the cat to have lived so long, and I agreed. She mentioned that at various times people tried to gift her with a kitten for adoption, and she had simply not been ready. We all agreed that we knew exactly how she felt. The empathy was apparent. Then she said that finally, the time had come, and she knew she was ready to adopt another cat. She said that she wanted to pick one out for herself, rather than have somebody siply present her with one. For some reason that raiseda bit of a red flag with me, although I'm still not sure why; really, I cannot fault anyone for wanting to choose their own pert, nor, for that matter, for having preferences about the animal's appearance, such as color, gender, and so forth. she said she had indicated that she had always wanted a black cat, and the guy told her "Ma'am, there isn't a white hair on his entire body". So, at last, she had a black cat. Then came the bombshell. the first thing she did, she said, was to have the cat declawed. Instantly, I felt the shock, anger, and hatred surge through me. To me, and probably to most people, declawing a cat is torture, abuse, and should be illegal. She kept talking, saying that cat's don't need their claws on their front feet anyway, since they actually fight with their hind legs only. And besides, she had to protect her furniture. Incredible, that anyone would actually say that; cat's don't use their front claws. More proof that people are willing, ready, and able to invent any fantasy, embrace any lie, which suits their interests by justifying their beliefs and behavior. What, pray tell, kind of person would choose to declaw a cat, then invent and embrace the idiotic lie that cats only fight with their hind legs anyway, so do not miss their absent front claws. Merely to hide one's guilt? Why go to such an extreme? A real sicko, right? Or, maybe, just maybe a normal, ordinary human being. Hell, you just want people to have enough integrity to leave out the bullshit. Sickening, how often and how easily most people abandon their own moral principles for expediency. Are you listening, Trump people?