Winter just got given this pyjama top. Do you find it:
a) cute and adorable, or b) strangely disturbing?
If you can’t read them, the stitched words say, “I love to play with my little friend the mouse.” Note that these words are being said by a cat. Maybe I've lost my innocence, but I'm going with b).
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It’s a reality she’ll be introduced to as soon as she first watches her first Warner Bros cartoons.
ReplyDeleteAnd it’s not just the text, it’s the whole composition that’s menacing. These two aren’t portrayed as equals: you’ve got this large cat sitting above a small mouse sheltering in a tiny box below. Maybe the mouse is ‘playing’ hide and seek with its bestest buddy the round-bellied cat, but maybe it’s not...
I agree that children should be allowed to have their childhood fantasies, though, and I’d rather she wore this jumper than one with a Rottweiler saying, “I love to play with my little friend the kitten.”
Your hypothetical Rotty, like all dogs, is a pack animal and would happily accept a kitten as a pack-mate if the pack-leader (that's owner to you) introduced it properly. It would be as affectionate towards and protective of the kitten as it would be to one of its human packmates. A Rotty playing with a kitten is thus far from unusual, and fun for both animals.
ReplyDeleteA cat playing with a mouse is also common; it tends to end with the mouse dying of heart failure and the cat's hunting skills being a little more finely tuned.
Of course, children are perfectly capable of acting out both these definitions of the word "play". I just think the second is significantly more disturbing.
Proof. :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, you're right: the rottie would be affectionate and protective towards the kitten, right up until it did something that "it's never, ever done before!" :-)
ReplyDeleteExcluding those cat & dog ones, (which sent shivers up my spine), there are some nice shots at that site. Although I had to edit the link to get it to work.
If a Rottie hurts you (or a kitten) it's because, rightly or wrongly, it perceived you as a threat.
ReplyDeleteIt's not "playing" with you. It's serious.
The cat playing with the mouse knows the mouse isn't a threat, and it isn't hungry. It's having fun.
I should at this point note that well over 50% of the people I know who have ever owned either a cat or a dog have also owned the other type of animal as well; and most of them have at some point had specimens of each at the same time.
ReplyDeleteNot once have I ever seen, or heard any of these people describe, a savage mauling of cat by dog.
Actually, Rotties aside, the more I read the text on the garment the more I think Scarface.
ReplyDeleteAnd it doesn't look like a cat. It's a teddy bear with a cat's head grafted on.
And there's no clear spatial relationship between the cat and the mouse.
If a Rottie hurts you (or a kitten) it's because, rightly or wrongly, it perceived you as a threat.
ReplyDeleteMe? Or a kitten? So, wrongly then?
It's having fun.
Isn't it also acting out its confused domesticated instincts?
Not once have I ever seen, or heard any of these people describe, a savage mauling of cat by dog.
Nah, just toddlers. And pensioners. :-)
And there's no clear spatial relationship between the cat and the mouse.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean? What do you want? Shadows? Whatever else the cat may or may not be, it's either above or behind the mouse. Sneakin' up or droppin' down with a smile on his face... :-)
If a Rottie hurts you (or a kitten) it's because, rightly or wrongly, it perceived you as a threat.
ReplyDeleteMe? Or a kitten? So, wrongly then?
Yes, a rottweiler would not be threatened by a kitten. Which is probably why, with rare exceptions, rottweilers do not maul kittens.
Now, I love Rotties and I could defend them at great lengths from this sort of baseless slander, but we're getting away from my point - which is this:
Contrary to what you said, a pet kitten is a hell of a lot safer around a pet rottweiler than a pet mouse is around a pet cat. As I imagine the millions of people around the world who own both rottweilers and cats could no doubt confirm.
It's having fun.
Isn't it also acting out its confused domesticated instincts?
1) Cats aren't domesticated in the same way that dogs are. Cats are wild animals we allow to share our communities in return for services rendered - historically, keeping the rodent population down.
It's not a coincidence that the largest domestic cats are still smaller than all but the youngest people. It would be too dangerous to share our community with cats that were physically capable of eating our children: because they would, the second we turned our backs.
2) There's nothing confused about it. The instinct is working fine.
Cats are solitary hunters who pretty much, in the wild, eat nothing but meat. The key factor in determining whether a particular cat will survive a lean year is how well it can hunt.
So, when a cat is well-fed, it practices hunting; that way, when it is starving, it will be able to catch its food more easily.
One mouse, or other small animal, can be caught and released and caught again many times, providing hours of practice.
(It's probably anthropomorphic to say this is "fun" for the cat, but it's a useful shorthand. "Hunting for sport" is another one.)
Not once have I ever seen, or heard any of these people describe, a savage mauling of cat by dog.
Nah, just toddlers. And pensioners. :-)
Since I was pretty explicitly talking about my personal experience... Nope. The closest to anything like that was my uncle's German Shepherd, who was devoted to him and his children. One day, he nipped my cousin, (and when I say "nipped", I mean no skin was broken) and so he was put down. Because you can't be too careful with dogs and children.
Sure, I read the papers. But the funny thing about papers is that they report the exceptional, not the commonplace.
A few random points this thread.
ReplyDeleteI) Children aren't innocent.
II) Innocence is not a desirable state to be in, anyway.
III) Warner Brothers cartoons derive most of their humour from the reversal of the relationships between animals. In short, they're funny because cats and small birds do not really behave like Sylvester and Tweety; and because rabbits are stupid un-Bugsy creatures who startle easily and run away from hunters.
…I could defend them at great lengths from this sort of baseless slander
ReplyDeleteWhat’s “baseless” about saying that while rotties might not attack kittens, they’ll certainly go toddlers and pensioners? My ‘Evidence for the Prosecution’ file is so large you could use it for a footstool. Sure, not every article’s about a rottie, but rotties make a sizeable contribution.
…a pet kitten is a hell of a lot safer around a pet rottweiler than a pet mouse is around a pet cat.
I wasn’t doubting the truth of that; I was just saying I’d rather Winter’s jumper had the cat/mouse combo than a kitten/rottie one. Both Ros and I had pet mice, Cyril and Raeder, and Tigger certainly loved ‘playing’ with them; to point that he’d sometimes hurl himself at the glass front of the mouse house! It was like Indy and that cobra behind the reflective sheet of glass in Raiders!
One mouse, or other small animal, can be caught and released and caught again many times, providing hours of practice.
I hadn’t thought of it that way, but yeah, I guess that makes sense. And you’re right, “Fun” probably is a bit too anthropomorphic.
…the funny thing about papers is that they report the exceptional, not the commonplace.
I think I have enough articles to show that the “exceptional” is still common enough.
More later, but I just had to respond to this...
ReplyDeleteYou had a mouse named after a Kriegsmarine Admiral?
Yes; yes I did. :-)
ReplyDelete