(When Fraidy Kat peeked out from under the bed last night she saw a strange cat on the window ledge. He was the fattest, sleekest and longest-hair creature she had ever seen)
Miss Kat! Kindly come out from under your abode. Our mutual friend Thomas suggested that I might stop by and speak with you when he is otherwise engaged.
Do you mean Feral Tom?
Yes, that is the gentleman in question. He has commenced an exploration of the city, and will often be away for several days at a time. He wishes to learn more about the humans first-hand.
Who are you?
I am Rainier Carl Gustaff von Katz, five times blue ribbon Best of Breed and three times Best in Show (retired). You may call me “Mister Katz”. Our friend Thomas often speaks of you, and wishes that I may enlighten you further whenever I am in the neighborhood. Since my retirement from the show circuit I have been living with a very intelligent and highly educated human, one who is almost as smart as an animal. Every evening he reads what they call a “newspaper”, and he teaches me about the irrational behavior of his fellow creatures.
Thomas has requested that I speak to you regarding the changes in the weather. It all has to do with their noisome vehicles and other machines. These human creatures have learned how to ruin more than just their own lives. They are in the process, as I speak, of ruining the climate. No one knows how bad it might get. Nothing will come in its right season again.
How awful! Is it the Republicans doing this?
Oh, Miss Kat, it is far worse than that. There are humans of all types and colors, who are engaged daily in their unconscionable business of ruination and destruction. You are right, however, to ask about the Republicans because they are the powerful humans who gain the most profit from these horrific human enterprises.
Just today, it was revealed in the newspaper that the boss of the Republicans, known as “The President” has decreed that they will not clean up the air which we breathe, even though they themselves will have to breathe the same poisons.
Try to understand, Miss Kat: humans have something called an “economy”, which refers to how they can get what they want when they want it. The boss Republican says that if we clean up the air it will “devastate the economy”. He believes that it’s more desirable that rich humans get more things immediately than the survival of themselves and all the rest of us here.
Can’t they see what’s happening around them?
Would that it were so simple. Those who are wealthy believe that their wealth will always save them. They think that even if the entire world is choked in it’s own filth they shall always prevail because of their money and power. They are convinced that the evils will be visited only upon the poor, for whom they have only contempt.
Aren’t there any humans who want to do something about this?
Oh yes, there are some admirable humans who do look ahead. Some of them joined together long before either of us were born, and created a group which they called “Environmental Protection Agency”. They wanted to help halt the inexorable march to destruction before it got worse. The Republicans have taken over this agency and use it now to justify their crimes.
They have turned what had been a good thing into something that does more harm than good. They claim now that the air and the water and all the living things are not important enough to save. There is no one, Miss Kat, who will speak for the rest of us.
Oh, Mister Katz! I have to get back under the bed — right now!
Fraidy Kat sez
Given a choice between their beliefs and the facts,
Most humans will deny the facts.
Hello Tom, I’ve been missing you.
Hello Fraidy Kat. I would have been here sooner but I’ve been talking to a bobcat that just moved into the neighborhood.
What kind of cat?
A bobcat, Fraidy, is a type of cat that lives in The Wild. He’s a little bit bigger than me, and he has a short tail that looks like it was cut off.
Did he come here to live with a human?
Well, that’s the problem. He didn’t want to come here, and humans would try to trap him and maybe kill him if they see him, but he’s small enough to hide during the day. Some of his relatives, though, are too big to hide. Do you know what a cougar is? He’s a big cat that is about as big as a human. Humans are afraid of him, and some people even hate him. If anyone sees him they call a lot of other humans and hunt him down.
Why did those cats come here if humans want to hurt them?
Try to understand now, Fraidy. Most animals don’t live in houses like you do. Most animals live in The Wild. It’s a place with lots of trees, and animals have been living there for a long, long time. It’s different from The City because it doesn’t have a lot of houses and humans.
Many kinds of animals live there. Some animals eat the trees and plants, then other animals eat them. The humans don’t want to live with the ones that eat other animals, so when they come into The City they have very little chance of surviving for long.
But, I still don’t understand Tom! Can’t they just stay in The Wild and let the humans live in The City?
Oh, they would if they could. But they’re losing their homes. Have you ever thought, Fraidy Kat, about what it would be like to not have a home?
Doesn’t everyone have a home?
The old cats say that long ago there were other humans who lived here and they shared everything with the plants and the animals. Then another kind of human came and they cut down trees and said that they were the only ones who had a right to be there. The humans had terrible weapons and big machines that destroyed the animals’ homes, and now there is no place for them to go. Some of The Wild still exists, but other animals already live there so there isn’t room for any more to move in.
So the animals without a home started moving into The City. They have learned that they can get food where humans live, just like me. I like to eat mice, but there are so many cats in my colony that we also eat a lot of what the humans throw away. But the big cats, the cougars, need more food. They have to roam all over The City and before too long they get seen and hunted down.
That’s terrible! Those poor cats! Don’t humans know that those animals have no place else to go?
Most humans are too selfish and greedy even to think of us, except that we get in their way. They think they can kill and destroy anything that is in their territory.
There are some humans, though, who say they want to be good and share our world in peace with us. But then they shove us out of our homes anyway.
Why would they do that?
Well, first of all Fraidy, have I ever told you about the humans called The Greens?
I’ve never seen a green human.
No, no… they call themselves The Greens because they care about The Wild and the green plants and the animals. They want humans to stop destroying the rest of us, and it’s very difficult because humans don’t want to change.
But here’s what is so upsetting about The Greens: a lot of them don’t want to live where other humans are, in The City. They say that they want to be out where there are lots of trees and rivers.
Is that bad?
Think about it, Fraidy Kat. When humans come they build roads and bring in cars, which scare the animals.
I ran out once when the door was open but when I was outside I got scared of all the cars.
But it’s not just cars that hurt us, they also build fences so the deers can’t eat trees, even though the deers were here first. They make lots of noise with their machines that cut down trees, and loud things with two wheels that a human rides on really fast and tears up the land just for fun. But worst of all, they take away the places where the big cats and the wild dogs have always hunted.
So some of these Green people think that they are doing a lot of good for all the other creatures, but really they are being very selfish. They just want to live in a place that is pleasant for them. Also, some of them go away and come back each day, just like your human does, and they come and go in those big smelly cars.
Even though The Greens are proud of themselves and say that they are better than the Republicans, they create as much bad as good. Most humans do whatever they want even though they claim that they are doing the right thing.
Oh, Tom! This is all so sad. I’m going back under the bed.
Goodnight Fraidy Kat.
Fraidy Kat sez:
If what you do is harming us
it doesn’t matter what you think you’re doing
I’m telling you, Fraidy, I’m just getting so angry at the Republican Party.
I know, Tom, I don’t like parties either. There’s so many people and noise, and I can’t even come out to get a drink of water.
No, no, Fraidy Kat. Not parties like when your human has other humans in your house all at once. I mean these big groups of humans that chose who gets to be the boss. Those groups are called Parties. But these Parties lie to humans and the ones called Republicans encourage them to be afraid and mean and selfish.
When enough people decide that they like being selfish they get afraid that they will lose what they got, so they chose someone who is mean and selfish to run things. These bosses just want what’s best for themselves and are laughing at the humans they fooled into choosing them.
But if they laugh at other humans and are mean to them, why do those humans chose the Republicans?
The Republican Party belongs to the rich humans and they have figured out how to fool stupid and greedy ordinary humans into helping them. Ordinary humans think that if they do what the rich ones want that they will get rich too.
Are you upset because some people are fooled and don’t get to be rich?
Why would animals care whether most humans are poor or if they’re free? These humans think that they are “poor” if they can’t get everything they want. Worse, they think that being “free” means they can treat the rest of us any way they like.
Those Republicans encourage the humans to want more and more, and they won’t be satisfied until they eat up the whole world.
You’re really scaring me Tom. What did the Republican humans do that was so bad?
A group of humans called the Senate make rules for all the ordinary humans. Right now a lot of the good humans want to start doing things that will help save themselves by saving the rest of us. But the rich ones keep wanting more and more and more. Then they teach the greedy humans to think only about money and power.
They don’t care about the future or what will happen to their young?
No Fraidy, they don’t care about anyone except themselves. This is why Republicans can fool people so easily. These Senate Republican humans had a chance to make some new rules that would help a little — just a little — but they prevented it from going through.
I heard a Republican Senator human on the radio and it was horrible! He was saying that doing anything to benefit all of us would cost ordinary families too much money. Of course what they meant was that it would cost the rich ones too much money. It is never difficult for smart Republicans to deceive stupid, greedy humans.
I’m sorry Tom, thanks for visiting, but I really do need to get back under the bed right now!
Fraidy Kat sez:
You can’t fool all the humans all the time,
but you can fool most of the humans most of the time.
Tom, are you mad at me about something? If you are I’m not coming out from under this bed.
No Fraidy, of course not. It’s those humans again. No matter what happens they only think of themselves. They think they own the world, and they treat every other living creature as if we were just things.
Oh, Tom, I know that. Why do you think I stay under the bed? What have they done now?
It’s more about what they haven’t done — what they just don’t understand.
Just the other day there was a big earthquake in a place called China. A lot of humans were killed, and a whole lot more were injured and homeless.
I’ve never trusted humans, but that’s still sad news. How many were killed?
A lot, Fraidy, more than a litter, more than all the cats in my colony.
But why do you seem so angry?
I’ll tell you why. All the news will talk about is how many of THEM were affected. They don’t even think about the rest of us. How many animals died that day? How many dogs and cats were buried in the rubble? How many birds lost their nests? How many fish choked in the mud? How many beehives are gone? If all the bees disappeared it would be a world-wide tragedy. If all the humans disappeared the earth and all of us on it would be much, much better off.
Do they really hate us that much?
I don’t think they hate us. They just don’t care about anything but themselves. If we suffer they don’t care. If we get in their way they just kill us. Once humans tried to kill all the cats, but… . wait, Fraidy! Don’t run under the bed! There’s one more thing I need to tell you! I’m sorry I mentioned the cats.
My human wouldn’t try to kill me, would he?
Don’t worry Fraidy Kat, some humans really do love us, though it’s usually because we help them or keep them from being lonely. And some humans even care about how many of us are becoming extinct — even though they mostly just care about the animals that seem impressive to them, or cute. The people in that country where the earthquake happened love the giant panda. They think of it as very special, even though they don’t feel that way about the rest of us.
But the reason I’m so upset tonight is because of what I read in one of those newspapers that they’re always littering my territory with.
Now, the item that I just read was about how a TV news programs had been reporting on the human lives that were lost. And then, in the same segment, they reported that the giant pandas were all safe.
That was good, wasn’t it?
Oh Fraidy, you just don’t understand. This newspaper thought it was an example of “trivializing” a tragedy.
When I read something like that I get really, really angry. But then I feel like crying.
I’m heading back under the bed!
