What is up with all the cats???

I'm not sure who started the whole thing, but I know it originally began with a 'post pics of your pets' subject, which had quite a bit of posts - it seems that one thing a good deal of Prius owners have in common is love of animals. And, since we all know what each others' cars look like, I guess we instead uploaded userpics of our kids (pets).

-m.

 

Cats? What cats?

 

Yea. What cats are you talking about? :wink:

Actually I think it started with member 'Daniel' after he put a cat in his avatar. I beleive it stated growing from there. When I saw I thought it was a neat idea since I have plenty of pics for out cat on my PC. Besides it's the least I could do for our princess.

 

I thought it was because we have catolitic converters on our cars!

:lol:

 

"The pun is the lowest form of humor - if you don't think of it first."
--Artur Schnabel

--Mark
'05 Tideland AM

 

CATS.... Mark Twain said: "A home without a cat, and a well-fed and properly revered cat may be a good home, perhaps. But how can it prove title?

Maybe it's because a Prius is much like a cat. Your Prius makes its own decisions about how much of what to use and allows you the priviledge of a ride.

But then, folks who are owned by a cat have a good self image and have no need to dominate their pet... a complete impossibility if a cat owns you.

 

I wondered that myself. Then I got a really great picture of mine, so I decided to join in.

Are Prius owners cat people? I know someone out there has a really beautiful big black dog...

 

We are contra-coventional!

Having dogs is conventional - so we have cats.

Having PCs is conventional - so we have Macs (The last time I looked at the PriusChat poll there were more Macs here than PCs while overall Macs have 3% of the market.)

Burning gas is conventional - so we keep that to a minumum

 

Plus, a Prius can "creep in on little cat feet" or purr loudly! I'm glad my Prius doesn't sleep on me though. Fortunately my Prius is also a bit dog like. It is happy to go for a ride any time *I* want.

 

..............yawn..........

 

Geez good question. It's been a month or two. Daniel, you ok??

 

I like cats, mmmm. JK.
Don't worry, its just a photoshop

 

I hate to say, but that Photoshop is something truly awful.

Anyway, I have a cat that is very old and has always enjoyed riding around in cars. Every now and then I take her out for a ride. I fold down the back seats and put blankets down in the front seat and over the rear seat backs, mostly to keep the cat hair off from them, and we go for a spin. She is deaf, so I doubt she can tell how different this car is from the previous ones, but she seems to like watching the world go by anyway. She seems to like that little vertical window in the rear.

 

Yeah, I suppose I can see the humor, but I sure as h*** don't find it funny. Not at all. I wonder what the reaction would be if little puppies were in the pot? The magic of Photoshop ...

Enjoy her while she lasts. The hardest part will be knowing when to say goodbye. I've had to do that several times in my life with my pets, and that last trip to the vet sucks. I'm man enough to admit I bawled like a baby.

 

For those of us who treat and see our pets as our children, as our family members, that's truly one of the hardest things to deal with - knowing that the odds are you will be outliving your children. I think it's the biggest negative to pet ownership out there.

-m.

 

Y A W N backatcha

 

Well, if I had a choice of outliving my "child" - my pet - or the other way around, I'd sooner deal with outliving my pet.

Our pets are totally dependent on us and form a very strong emotional bond with us. They don't deal very well at all with sudden change, not just a new home but new caregiver as well.

Which is why I get very angry when somebody picks up a pet with the same careless nonchalance as picking out a meal at McDonald's.

You know very well within 6 months the poor animal will be abused, homeless, or in a shelter.

There are also many sad cases at our local shelter of senior citizens who have had the dog or cat and then pass away. So the dog or cat - itself already a Senior Citizen in pet years - is suddenly thrust into a very strange environment and almost totally cut off from the constant companionship it used to enjoy and depend on.

Let's face it, nobody wants to adopt a 14 year old cat or a 8 year old dog. Everybody wants a cute cuddly kitten or puppy.

Before my current cat, I adopted Herbie, a 14 year old tabby from the animal shelter. His caregiver had been a senior citizen who passed away.

Herbie passed away when he was 17, so I only had him 3 years. I have to admit he was - by far - the best pet I ever had. Very sweet and cuddly and gentle. True, he was already mostly deaf, going blind, and had the occasional accident on the floor. Since I don't have a stitch of carpet in my place, that wasn't a big deal.

I built a ramp so Herbie could still walk up onto the bed when it became obvious his arthritis was too much to allow jumping up. I woke up one morning and Herbie was peacefully laying beside me. He had passed away during the night.

So yeah, it really *really* sucks to lose a pet like that. But I also wonder how poor Herbie had felt when the frail old woman who had him from a kitten passed away. How he felt when the home care nurse stopped in for her daily appointment, discovered what happened?

Suddenly you have EMT's, police, all these strangers wandering around the home, totally upsetting the quiet environment the cat is used to. The home care nurse knew something was wrong as soon as she unlocked the door, as Herbie was normally very quiet but that morning was loudly crying.

So it's a lot better that we outlive our "children."