when i was around 9 my family cat died and i was understandably upset about it. so a few days later in my elementary catholic class (italian thing. ask mussolini about it and then hang him again) i drew a picture of "what i thought heaven looked like". and what heaven looked like to me was god standing around with an arm around jesus' shoulders being like "and THEN my wonderful son did this..." with jesus looking visibly embarrassed, because that's how a good dad is supposed to act, while all the angels and souls of the departed sat at their feet looking impressed in their wings and haloes. various pets being among them, such as my cat, my grandpa's old dog etc, also behaloed and winged. except when i went to show my drawing to the teacher explaining my artistic thought process, she looked at it and went "nice. but animals don't go to heaven because they don't have souls like us."
i wish. oh how i wish every day of my life that i'd been the hypersensitive, quick-to-tears kid that would've undoubtedly triggered a whole class religious schism when my classmates found out why i was screaming and sobbing my eyes out. but alas, i just discarded her theological theory altogether. what a silly woman she was. she must've never had pets, otherwise she'd clearly know they DO have a soul. boy, was she gonna get a surprise when she got to heaven.
now that i think back on it, you have to laugh at the heartless, eye-opening cruelty of looking a grieving child in the eye and saying "sorry kid, little mina's not getting into heaven." what a succinct summary of catholicism. anyway, I'm not christian anymore.
seb wants to be pet, too 😤💕
((TYSM to @angel-fr0m-venus for asking how seb would react to clora petting all the cats around the school/hogsmeade BAHAHA. like a neglected puppy, thats how🐶))
Somedays my heart just aches to hell and back because i miss my cat. If you see this would you reply/rb with a photo of your cat if youre comfortable sharing bc i really miss seeing a cat so regularly
A new sculpture! Finally... I feel like I never sculpt anymore since I'm always sick or have some 500 other things going on or projects to finish, but I'm trying to schedule time to do it more often this year hopefully..! Just a generic fantasy creature as usual, but did try making the eyes a little more sparkly this time.. hrmm..
i’m so sorry if i seem a bit off or post less in the next week or so — i just found out my beloved 17 years old soulmate cat got diagnosed with bone cancer and he doesn’t have much time left. he lives in my family home with my parents still whilst i’m abroad so it’s double tough because i can’t be with him. i just need some time to calm down and make my peace with everything
tbh I'm never going to stop being mad about the Manx syndrome that makes Manx cats manxes. It's an easily, Visually identifiable trait that causes the afflicted animal life long discomfort and mobility issues so severe many need specialized care and equipment to give them a normal life. And that isnt even taking into account how many die as kittens or who need to be put down because they'll never have the minimum quality of life needed to subject them to their difficulties.
there's 2 genes that can cause shortened tails/no tail in cats and while it's debatable how ethical the other one is, due to how important tails are for cat communication, the bobtail Gene is at least not devastating to the animals welfare. Unlike Manx syndrome it just causes the kittens to be born with fewer tail vertebrae. All the other vertebrae are unaffected.
Manx syndrome, in the more severe cases, which to be clear are the breed standard and are considered Desirable, cause the back half of the spine to fail to form correctly. This causes the cats to "hop like bunnies" bc their hind legs are partially paralyzed. they have severe nerve issues bc their spinal cord isn't fully encased in bone like it should be. The paralysis effects their guts too, making many of them incontinent or unable to relieve themselves properly. which leads to chronic UTIs and them needing frequent baths. which, they are cats, they do not like baths.
The main defense of the continued intentional breeding of manxes is that it is a naturally occurring mutation, as in its a landrace breed that initially happened on its own in the feral cat population on the island of mann. "if they were able to survive and reproduce under those conditions then surely it's ok" type of argument. A dominant trait spreading through a feral cat population on a small island that has no predators and plenty of small animal prey to eat, is not a defense. it's the law of large numbers.