It’s Sunday! Time to kick back and relax.
Relaxing sometimes means more thinking. One thing I think about often during these trying times our world has been going through this past year is animals.
I‘m not sure why I remembered something from years ago but it is what prompted this post. I was visiting a friend who has children and a dog & cat. While I was there one of the children and the cat came into the room. The child was kind of picking at/pestering the cat and so the cat scratched the child. The child was of course upset by that and then swung his leg very hard and kicked the cat. I did a loud shocked noise and said “don’t kick your cat!” My friend told her child to stop but then looked at me and said “well the cat shouldn’t have scratched him.” I was appalled.
Being who I am and how I feel about animals I knew I had to speak up. I proceeded to let my friend know how wrong that was and that her child was bothering the cat and the cat was just responding as any animal would to that. Or for that matter any human. If someone is bothering us we most likely aren’t going to just sit there and take it. Well it wasn’t going well between my friend & I so I chose to just go. (Don’t worry, we remained friends)
There have been other times I had to speak up for animals and it caused tension in a relationship but I can’t just sit back and remain quiet. This isn’t just about feeling passionate about something that I believe in. Everyone does that because everyone believes strongly about something. But believing something doesn’t necessarily make it true or right. So this isn’t just about feeling passionate about something I believe in. This is 100% about right and wrong.
Back to the situation of the child and the cat. Was it right for the child to kick the cat? That would be a big NO. Was it right for the cat to scratch the child? The word might not be “right” but “expected”, “in it’s nature”, etc. The cat was reacting as a cat would in this situation.
Animals can not speak as we do and we have to remember animals are trying to live in a “human” world. They are trying to coexist and understand us as much as we are trying to understsnd them. I think we sometimes forget that.
Please don’t be afraid to speak up for them. They need it. It’s the right thing to do.
Happy Sunday! Give your pet a great big hug today. 🐶🐱🐰🐭
Animals Are Feeling Beings Too 
That mother, was just teaching her child that it is okay to be the aggressor. The kid probably grew up to be a bully. Animals seldom attack (unless they are mental). lol
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I agree. They seldom attack unless they are provoked, scared, or ill.
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I’d never leave my cat and baby together unsupervised because I don’t want either of them getting hurt accidentally or on purpose.
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Good idea for sure.
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I’ve seen a few episodes of My Cat From Hell where Jackson Galaxy has had to help a family to teach their children the correct way to interact with the family cat so that they don’t get scratched, etc. That is what this child’s parents should have done in the first place and not encouraged bad behavior and blamed the cat for something it instinctively would do.
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Exactly!❤
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The cat couldn’t very well tell the kid to stop it any other way. Hope the kid made peace with the kitty.
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So true.
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I say good for you!! LeeAnn, I am of the same disposition. I will not turn away when I see an animal being mistreated. The other day a woman at the park I was at, yanked so hard on her dog, she choked her. Immediately I said, “Please don’t choke your dog.” In response she said, “She is fine.” I just looked at this woman plainly saying with my face how I disagreed. A few moments later, I felt eyes on me, hateful eyes. I turned around and there about 50 yards away were this woman with 3 others she was with. All were staring at me with dislike (putting it nicely) and all talking about me. They did not know what to do that I turned around and just stood there looking at them. I do not back down and I really hope I gave all them food for thought how to treat animals. As for their hatred towards me, that just goes to show you where they are coming from. My heart so goes out to any animal with a person like that.
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Oh dear, that makes me angry she did that and that they acted so negatively toward you. Hopefully it at least made her think about it so she doesn’t do it again.
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Exactly, LeeAnn. Only we can change ourselves.
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❤
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