I have sometimes wondered about the multi-billion (trillion?) dollar “pet” industry…
Whether it has been designed to condition us to accept the same practices that we get trained to impose upon animals… (annual “check up” and vaccines, controlling, euthanasia, culling, etc.)
Your thoughts about domesticated animals having been forced to find meaning in other ways are worth thinking about, and it also seems there is a parallel with the domesticated human condition. I have come to a point where I think that humanity has been trained to steal purpose and meaning from other expressions of life, and by so doing, has destroyed its own meaning.
We once rehomed a cat (the dear fellow on our icon). He had been confined in an SPCA cage for 5 months, and no one wanted to take him because he was not responsive to people, and he bit and scratched people with his sharp teeth and claws. So, we took him. It took a long time to build his trust. He kept cowering and running under the bed or other furniture, as he wanted nothing to do with human beings. When we called his name, he would not respond, and his eyes, at the beginning, looked at us with anxiety and also some kind of disdain for humans. He hated being picked up and he was never going to consider himself a “lap cat”. It was a kind of spirit I loved about him, his spirit which craved his own autonomy and refused to be subjected to human will. When we moved to our new home, the first thing John did was get a cat door installed, as that is how this cat found meaning: being outside in nature. We decided that it was important for him to come and go as and when he pleased. I learned that to communicate with him, it had to be on his own terms. So, instead of trying to teach him human language, I decided to observe him and listen and watch how he communicated. I started to mimic his meows. Once I started that, a whole new level of interaction became possible with him. His eyes looked at me with a new light, something that conveyed: “Hey, you’re not as dumb as I thought”. When I “meowed”, he ran from wherever he was, to come and see what was going on. I found this communication process, what he was teaching me, to be a deep life lesson. And then, with this new communication technique, I started inviting him to accompany me for long walks in the woods, on an old deer trail. There was no leash or tethering involved – everything was on his own terms. We would walk for very long distances, at his pace. When I would get ahead, he would stop and meow, as if to convey that I am going much too quickly. Then I would meow back to him, until he would catch up. I had to be very patient during these cat walks, as I felt he needed time to sniff, and listen, and take everything in, about the sights and sounds of nature. In some ways, this cat taught me new things about meaning in life, where it comes from, and its profound connection with nature.
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