[ExI] rent a dog

[John Grigg]

I found it sad how in the Philippines dogs are seen in a painfully
utilitarian way. My neighbors keep some of their dogs in relatively small
outdoor cages, where the canines are used as sentries. Yes, the animals are
fed and taken for a short walk each day, but that is it. The poor dogs face
hour after hour after hour locked in those cages, and sometimes I hear them
crying at night, which breaks my heart. When I brought this up to my
neighbors, they shrugged their shoulders and said that I talk like a
privileged American.

John

On Tue, Jan 26, 2021 at 1:39 AM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Reprehensible beasts are cats, vicious predators, merciless.  Dogs just
> like to be with their peeps.  spike
>   Granted that they are killers, they are a lot of fun, and not only as
> kittens (always get two; they are hilarious together).  In those very
> rare times I have been without a cat I immediately went and got a couple.  Almost
> all of them are introverted, like me.  So I leave them alone most of the
> time and they leave me alone most of the time.  Every cat I have ever had
> had a distinct personality - more than dogs I would say.  We call them
> pets.  I do like to pet them and make them purr.  I do like to give them
> people tuna (only once a week - the proteins are too strong for their
> kidneys if eaten
> too often).  "They are just substitute children."  That person does not
> have a clue as to how much you
> can love a cat.  Of course in my case, I would love goats, weasels and
> more (no snakes - too cold).
>
> And if you think that dogs are not killers, just starve one and see the
> edible population of the neigh-
> borhood diminish rapidly.  But, you say, even well-fed cats will kill.
> True - just doing their job and getting some different protein.  My cats
> are older and usually bring their prey into the house (often
> moles) and hardly ever eat them. - just to play with.  Occasionally we
> find remains behind the sofa, sometimes we have a mad chase around the
> house, with the cats watching curiously (do we think we are cats?), and manage
> to catch a few  They did hide though when we were chasing a possum.   bill w
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 4:00 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> >...> On Behalf Of BillK via extropy-chat
>> Subject: Re: [ExI] rent a dog
>>
>> On Sun, 24 Jan 2021 at 21:23, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > Cats do play that game!  It just takes a little bit of training to get
>> > them used to the harness.
>> > Loads of videos.........
>> > <https://duckduckgo.com/?q=taking+cats+for+a+walk&t=ffab&atb=v154-1&ia
>> > r=videos&iax=videos&ia=videos>
>> >
>> > (And you have to put up with all the strange looks you get).   :)
>> >
>> > BillK
>> ----------------------------------------
>>
>> >...But the project of 'Guide cats for the blind'  was a bit of a
>> disaster.
>> :)
>>
>>
>> BillK
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>> Think of all the different jobs humans have found for dogs: search and
>> rescue, varmint control, guide, pulling sleds, tracking, military, herding
>> sheep, guard, guiding the blind, catching frisbees, police, racing,
>> hunting,
>> emotional support, drug detection, of course companionship and endless
>> entertainment, and that's just the things I can think of easily.
>>
>> What the heck have we been able to get cats to actually do for us?
>> Catching
>> mice and companionship (after a tepid fashion (when they are in the
>> mood.))
>> They do catch mice which is certainly useful but one gets the feeling
>> their
>> motive is not to benefit the kibble-suppliers, to which they appear mostly
>> indifferent.  Rather they do that single useful activity only because it
>> allows them to play their favorite game: Kill Something.
>>
>> My apologies cat-lovers.  I completely understand: dogs don't generally do
>> so well indoors, but cats do.  A cat is better than the other choices if
>> one
>> wishes another life form in the home and one does not care for yappy
>> little
>> lap dogs.
>>
>> spike
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> extropy-chat mailing list
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20210204/8c61c0fb/attachment.htm>