cats and children

i acquired a cat about a month and a week ago. it's good to have the company. and having something live to take care of is very satisfying. plants are excellent, but they don't move. fish are very lovely, but you can't interact with them much through the plexiglass (or acrylic, if you swing that way). cats, dogs, ferrets, little cappuchin monkeys, are on a whole other level.

so i have a cat. an established, mature cat. i knew i didn't have the time to dedicate to kitten training and whatnot, although kittens are just so darn cute! the dark side is that this cat is an established, mature specimen. which means that he has certain habits that he isn't going to break for me just yet. he's got "personality."

yesterday he peed on my bed. the second time he's done that (peed outside of the normal pee-ing place) while in my care. the first time, i think he felt neglected and lonely. this time i think it was perverse-ness. unless of course the freshly scooped litter was not to his liking. and i'll give him the benefit of the doubt, now that i've had time to calm down.

but the experience made me realize for the umpteenth time, that i am not ready for children yet. yes i'm getting up there in age, and perhaps i should want to pass my genes along, evolutionary urge and all. but i don't. and the more i deal with children, the less there is that want.

i seriously wanted to beat the cat, or throw him in the bathroom and leave him there all day, or chuck him out the door into the night, and forget his existence. and that was just for a cat! imagine if i had a small one that wouldn't stop crying. or kept runing in and out through the screen door. or kept pulling at me for my attention. yikes. my blood pressure rises just considering those scenarios!

cats are not people. just like children (below a certain age) are not people. i am convinced of this. some children may do a good imitation of people, but they are not. their sense of morality, if they have one, is very different from people's view of morality. and i don't believe that cats are moral creatures. they just are. children just are.

i have much respect for those who raise children, who keep cats, without killing or harming their charges. much respect.