CSotD: More than a feline
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"Libertarian!"
In today's "New Yorker Daily Cartoon," Kim Warp raises a question that perplexes but only occasionally infuriates me.
I understand why cats go leash-free, though I know people who walk their cats on leashes and good for them. But cats are only marginally domesticated and, while they are interesting companions in their own off-beat way, they're not partners the way a dog is.
In a pre-industrial age, there might be a cat or two in the house and a whole clan of them in the barn. The one in the house was a pet who did some mousing around the place, the barn cats were basically symbiotic animals, supported in return for their ratting prowess. And a ship's cat was a bit of both.
But unlike dogs, they didn't have "jobs" that they were trained to do. The partnership worked because the natural personality of the animal met the needs of the people.
In some urban neighborhoods, rats are apparently still an issue, though I don't think of those as "New Yorker" neighborhoods, and so the dog has a bit of a legitimate gripe here, seeing the cat go without leash or hindrance. It's not like the cat is on duty, and, outside of rat-infested areas, it's more likely to be destroying songbirds than vermin.
The one cat I've had was an alley cat our five-year-old made part of the family, back when we lived in Colorado Springs, which isn't the Big Apple but is a city. The cat did some good mousing in the basement and was a pleasant companion and I liked him.
The thing with cats, though, is that when they go out, there's a chance they won't come back. It's the flip-side of that libertarian streak: They not only end up under automobiles but they pick fights they shouldn't and, out here in the country at least, they are as attractive as rabbits and squirrels to animals that eat rabbits and squirrels.
I was just reading an old memoir of the days of commercial sailing ships, and the fellow writes often of the various monkeys and parrots and such that sailors would pick up in exotic ports. Very few of them made it back to New England, and even attempts to have dogs on board didn't work out so well for the dogs.
The ship's cats seem to have done all right, but they were only mentioned in passing. Who knows how many drowned or were swept overboard or otherwise met their ends? In those days, it was only the rare housecat who got a name beyond "kitty" and was a true pet rather than an adjunct, like the rooster.
I said before that I am occasionally, though only occasionally, infuriated by the difference between cats and dogs. I have no problem with leash laws and I'll happily enforce barking laws myself.
Nor do I object to scooping poop. In fact, that little watch pocket in blue jeans? A perfect place to stash a couple of empty poop bags.
However, who's scooping the cat poop? If nobody raises hell over cat poop because it's hidden in someone's rose bushes or in the sandbox at the preschool playground, why can't I just kick a few leaves over my dog's poop and call it even?
And why are dogs invariably licensed, but cats only very rarely?
It is a puzzlement.
But I like cats.
They're one of my favorite invasive species.
Don't read this Oatmeal cartoon.
Elsewhere in comic land
Sally Forth the strip has been more introspective than usual for the past several weeks, and now Sally Forth the character has confessed that she and Ted seem to be having some problems. It's an odd turn for a strip that normally plays for laughs, but there's nothing wrong with stretching characters into new areas.
I'll be interested in seeing where Ces takes this. One helpful element in the storytelling is that the feature isn't particularly obsessed with the idea that each strip has to end with a laugh. In these moments, laughs can be hard to come by.
(Oh, and, if you've been insulted by my remarks about cats, here's a peace offering: Ces has a new book of cat poetry coming out.)
Another lifestyle change has been (Classic) Ben Bolt's departure from the ring to become a reporter. It's yielded a couple of good stories, but now (well, April, 1956) he's thinking about climbing back into the squared circle.
I've enjoyed a break from the "Ben meets obnoxious fighter, Ben defeats obnoxious fighter" storylines, but I enjoy John Cullen Murphy's art so much that I don't much care if the stories fall into a predictable pattern. The strip is a classic I follow not for camp value but because it's just damn good work.
Political Corner
I don't often agree with Glenn McCoy, but he's got this one right. This election is, to continue the domestic pet theme, a dog's breakfast, and the only sensible approach is to look past the nominees themselves and at the long term implications of the choice.
Whoever wins the election is going to at least be replacing Scalia and almost certainly Ginsburg over the next four years, and it wouldn't be surprising to see perhaps two more justices drop off the bench over the period as well.
Pretty sure Glenn and I aren't looking to the same outcome, but we're looking at the same issue.
Now here's your moment of a fiddle sounding like dogs:
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