Fraidy Kat Sez

Tom explains the problem with plastic bags

Come on out Fraidy Kat. It’s me!

Oh, hi Tom. It’s nice to see you again so soon.

Hi Fraidy. I’ve been spending time in that new park. Mostly I stay up in the trees listening to the humans and sometimes my new human friend is there. He tries to explain things to me, but he’s as puzzled by humans as I am.

You know, the more I learn about them the more they disturb me. I wonder how they even survive. They are such babies!

Humans don’t seem small and cuddly to me. 

No, Fraidy Kat. I mean that they think like babies and they do all kinds of destructive things like huge children who only think of themselves.  This “freedom” idea that humans always talk about means that they can do whatever they want and never have to clean up the damage.

So here’s what got me so depressed while I was listening to them for a few days: first of all do you know what plastic bags are?

Do you mean those white things that my human brings stuff home in? They scare me when they make that crinkly sound and I run away.

Well, the problem is a lot worse than that. Humans have been making such a mess in this world that all the rest of us are in serious danger. They get these bag things every day and they wind up everywhere. There is no animal that can eat them and many animals strangle in them every day. They even float around in that big lake they call The Ocean, harming the fish.

I like fish.

That’s right, Fraidy Kat, we all like fish. But humans are killing off everything on the earth, including the fish.

The bags are only one part of the mess that humans make, but if they can just use fewer of them it will begin to help a little bit. 

OK. So those people I told you about, The Greens, have a lot of ideas about how to help and one of them is to charge money for the bags instead of giving them out for free. 

Why are they free?

I don’t know Fraidy. I guess someone thought it was a good idea at the time, but it turned out to be a horrible idea. The Greens’ idea is that if bags aren’t free everyone will have their own bags and they will be able to use them over and over. So the people who make the rules for The City — I think they’re called “The Council” — made a new rule that stores would charge people 15 cents for each bag.

Is that a lot?

No, it’s a very small amount, but now the Republicans are telling people that it’s not fair and they have made up all kinds of silly reasons why they don’t want to do it. They have these things on the radio called “talk shows”, where people call in to whine about every little thing they don’t like. A Republican is always there to tell them why they should exercise their right to be immature and selfish.

I can hardly believe it! They act like children who don’t want to clean up their room before they can go out and play.

When I was a kitten my mommy cleaned me. But then she taught me how to lick myself and to bury my poop so I could learn to take care of myself.

That’s right — just one more example of how animals are smarter than humans. These Republicans teach people to be resentful and petty, but the most shocking thing about them is that they like to attack anyone who has any ideas about how to clean things up. They want their followers to yell and scream and throw tantrums instead of doing one small thing to help us all.

But if it’s a small thing, why is it so upsetting?

That’s my whole point, Fraidy! A lot of rich humans are making money by causing the damage in the first place. If ordinary humans won’t pay a tiny bit of money to do the right thing, what are the chances of the rich ones parting with any of their precious money? Humans will keep on poisoning our world until they and the rest of us are all poisoned.

That’s it Tom. I’m heading back under the bed.

Good night Fraidy Kat.

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link:

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016

hello small-timid-cat

Oh! Hi bobcat. It’s nice to see you. Where have you been?

bobcat friend one-eye-cat-torn-ear. bobcat sit colony one-eye-cat-torn-ear. colony tell story story. bobcat hear good good story tell small-timid-cat

Is it another story about humans who love animals?

story animal love human. good good story.

zoo place human watch animal. gorilla live zoo. human cub fall hurt. no human reach. mother gorilla help human cub. good good story.

Good evening Miss Kat. It is I — Rainier Carl Gustaf von Katz. Will you honor me with your presence this evening?

Oh, hi Mr. Katz. I always like it when you come. You know so much.

Come now, my dear child, I am merely a student of human behavior, fortunate to live with an enlightened human who assists me in apprehending the whys and wherefores of that most exasperating species.

When last we spoke you asked me how it was possible that Republicans were able to commit abhorrent crimes on a daily basis with the full endorsement of the human citizenry.

Humans are so scary. Do you think I could really understand them?

I do not promise full understanding Miss Kat. Ultimately it is not possible to make sense of that which is senseless.

The first thing you must reflect upon is that humans acquired their unnatural powers, in the far distant past, through the employment of words. Since that time they have dominated the world, but also each other, through the deceptive use of words. In other words, they have learned to lie and to have those lies believed. 

Do humans really lie on purpose?

Sadly, miss Kat, humans the world over are daily misusing words to their own perceived advantage.

Inasmuch as humans are self-centered and avaricious, they can be easily controlled, even when told to do something injurious to themselves. Since the beginning of what they call Civilization the more willful and intelligent humans have manipulated the dull-witted ones with words that engender certain emotions. 

There are many ways in which humans are made vulnerable to irrational impulses. The first, which comprises my topic for tonight’s instruction, is what they call Religion.

What is re-lishon?

Religion, Fraidy Kat, is something uniquely human. No other creature surrenders their lives and well-being to mental concepts which have so little to do with the real world. 

To commence, ponder the stories which your mother told you of the First Mother Cat, and how she brought forth all the myriad forms of our most excellent race. 

Oh yes. I loved my mother’s stories, like the one about how the First Mother Cat gave us mice to eat and claws that always stay sharp.

There are innumerable stories, Miss Kat, far more than your mother knew alone.  

But attend carefully, this is the part which, though utterly preposterous, holds sway over most humans in the world: if you were to ask a dog what…

Dogs are really, really scary!

Believe it or not, my child, many cats are not fearful of dogs. And many dogs will sit and acquaint us with their stories.

Now, the stories that dogs tell are about the Great Dog Father, and they are quite unlike our own stories. All that is precious to dogs was first bestowed upon them by their First Father.

I don’t know anything about fathers.

We are immensely different from dogs in that respect, Miss Kat, for we know only our mothers. In any event, we tell them our stories, and the dogs tell us theirs. No animal would say that their story is true and the other’s false, yet that is precisely what humans do in thrall to this preposterous idea that they call Religion.

By employing words associated with a religion, the manipulators are able to tell any manner of falsehoods to their advantage. The manipulated humans can be made to do anything, no matter how evil, because certain words are associated with their personal religion.

It is horrible, Miss Fraidy Kat, unbelievable. For imaginary and irrational ideas humans have done things they would have otherwise never thought to do. They have killed, imprisoned and tortured other humans… . 

Oh no! That’s awful! I don’t want to hear any more!

Yes, dear child, that is enough for one evening. But soon I will return to explain to you … .

Miss Kat?

Goodnight Fraidy Kat. You’ll be safe under your bed.

Hello Tom. It’s nice to see you again so soon.

I’ve been out of the neighborhood all week. I found a big park about one night’s walk from here and I spent a lot of the time hiding in a tree, listening to the things that humans like to talk about.

You know I’ve always mistrusted humans but yesterday I made a human friend. He can even speak a little bit of Cat, but mostly he spoke to me in Human Words. We sat together a long time, and I knew I could trust him because he could sit without talking at the opposite end of the bench with his back to me. You and I know how logical it is to cover each other’s backs, but I never met a human who knew that.

My human is good to me, but he doesn’t much understand cat ways.

This human was an older one with silver hair, who had seen a lot of life, just like me. 

It turns out that he’d read about the escaped laboratory cat who died the other day. He’s one of the Greens, and he was sickened and saddened by the terrible things being done to us in those places.

But he also said that there were still some small examples of of humans doing something good. He told me about a good-hearted human who built a home for monkeys that had spent their entire lives in a laboratory. He’d been able to get them when the research humans no longer had any use for them.

Aren’t monkeys those animals who are cousins to the humans? How could they be so cruel to their own relatives?

Oh, poor Fraidy Kat. If humans can become callous and cruel to each other, it’s easy to see how they could treat animals as if we’re just things with no feelings.

The human who built the home for laboratory survivors was someone who’d found out how his cousins were being treated and decided to save as many as he could. 

Does this mean that animals won’t be hurt in laboratories anymore?

I’m so sorry Fraidy, but it’s still as bad as ever. Nearly all the other humans still think of us as their playthings, to abuse and then throw away.

The saddest thing he told me, was what one of the research humans said about the human who saved the monkeys. His heart was so hardened that he dismissed it as a trick by those humans who are Green and believe in the right of animals to have their own dignity. He said that humans who do these kind things are just trying to prevent him from imprisoning and using animals for his own purposes.

But why? Why are humans so cruel?

These laboratory humans don’t see themselves as cruel. They have the idea of helping other humans, but they’ve had to harden their hearts in order to avoid feeling shame. They do horrible things to us but can tell themselves they were doing something good. They call this “the ends justify the means”.

My new human friend explained something to me that he called Karma. The idea is pretty simple — good causes bring good results and bad causes bring bad results. No matter how humans may excuse their cruelty as being for good ends, they can’t deny the laws of Karma.

He said that after many generations of animal research and many new medicines, rich humans can live longer, but nearly all humans are less happy than their parents were. 

He believes that the wholesale torture of animals over such a long time has brought nothing but bad Karma to our land. More knowledge and better medicines are not enough to make up for the frustration and discouragement that people feel inside. Whatever benefits humans get from abusing the rest of us will never make them happy, because they had to rid themselves of compassion to achieve them.

But  can all humans really be that bad?

Not all of them, Fraidy. My human friend told me about the Great Human Teacher who had said that if you cannot love it doesn’t matter if you gain the whole world — you will still never be happy. Most humans have heard these words but very, very few try to follow them.

Oh, Tom. Will it ever change?

I don’t know Fraidy, but for tonight you’ll be safe under your bed.

Good night Tom.

Good night Fraidy Kat.

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links

Local News | Former lab chimps find new life beyond cages | Seattle Times Newspaper