houses with cats that don’t have toys everywhere creep me out in the same way as houses with kids that don’t have toys everywhere
okay i thought it was clear from context but apparently i should have been more careful about using the word “stuff” instead of “toys”
no cat beds
no cat trees
no cat tents
no crinkle tunnels
no scratching posts
no scratching pads
just nothing, anywhere, that indicates that a cat lives there, except maybe a litterbox from skymall that looks like a potted plant and an autofeeder tucked somewhere discreet
obviously not every cat goes bonkers for catnip mice and kicker fish and little bell balls but
anything? anything at all?
i was going to specify “weirdly sterile houses” but i didn’t because i’ve also seen this with semi-functional adults who grew up in one of those weirdly sterile houses
they grew up in a house where the cat was declawed and there was a vase on the counter with a rotating cast of betta fish and none of their toys were allowed to leave their room, assuming they weren’t collectible toys kept under glass.
then they moved out and got older and they end up with a cat but they don’t really know what to do with it. it doesn’t occur to them to buy things for the cat because they grew up in a house where the cat didn’t have things. cats just sort of sleep and eat and that is what cats do. sometimes when you feel like it you drag some string around and see if they’ll chase it. there’s none of the weird sterility their parents had but they don’t seem aware of pets as having needs or wants of their own, independent of pure survival. litterbox, food, water. they prefer cats because they wouldn’t want to have to walk a dog. people who ‘spoil’ their cats are crazy, they think, because cats don’t need all that. they know, because they grew up with cats, and their cats were perfectly happy, they will rush to assure you. it’s just that cats are all a little bit terrible, really, and a cat will never love you as much as you love it, and that’s just what cats are like, and if you think otherwise you’re just one of those cat owners, imagining things—not like this practical cat owner, who knows better
so i guess ultimately the creepiness in both cases comes from the same place, which is “this person fundamentally misunderstands what it is to be responsible for another living being because this is all they have ever known, and they have chosen to respond to more positive examples with scoffing accusations of softness, because to do otherwise would be to acknowledge the wrongdoings of the past”
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theclumsiestninja 