It was funny.
I was actually on YouTube, and in the UK blogs,
now, I can't tell you if this is the truth all through all
of YouTube land, but in the ones I was watching,
instead of calling it a rant, they would call it a waffle.
Now, we're going to have a bloody good waffle.
So get ready, get set.
Strap yourselves in.
We're going to have a waffling good time and catify the world!
Come on, you.
First of all, look at this here.
Not bad, huh?
Look at that right there.
Kind of prototypical, but it's coming.
Keep your eyes, your ears peeled for this one.
Anyhow, today I want to talk about this concept
of the raw cat.
And how does that become a rant?
Very easily.
I don't want to see a cat in a sweater.
I do not want to see a cat doing something
that if a cat could speak English,
they'd be like, hell no.
What is the raw cat?
It's the concept that they use all the time
when trying to explain to you guys
what it is to be pretty much a wild animal in a home.
Like I've always said, they wake up in the morning,
they go hunt, catch, kill, eat.
Groom, sleep.
Rinse, repeat.
Let's do it again.
And of course in the meantime, there's snuggles, there's love,
there's a little bit of quiet time.
But there's always that raw cat.
There's always that cat who goes, I need to get up high
and survey my territory.
I have to get in the bush and hunt my prey.
It really galls me that we still sell cat clothes in pet stores.
That we still think it's OK to sell little tutus.
And I just think that if we're going
to encourage them to be their best cat self within our four
walls, we have to thank them for doing stuff for us
in the first place.
Case in point, this litterbox, the ones
that are self cleaning so you never have to look at litter.
We clearly have a hangup about what cats do.
I don't think that you should scrub out your litterboxes
and bleach them, and make them smell crystal sanitized
clean to the human nose.
You've heard me talk about what I think about toilet training
cats.
It's just-- the cat would be going,
you want me to go on the toilet?
Do you know the massive favor that I'm
doing for you by going into a box in the first place?
I mean out there I could go in like every 10 feet,
marking everything in sight, and pooping and peeing everywhere.
And I've been doing it in a box.
I love clicker training for cats.
You know I love positive reinforcement, offering,
conditioning, you know I love all that stuff.
And it keeps cats' mind and body occupied.
But then we take it a step farther, you know?
Once we get to the point where cats are performing tricks
for humans, where we charge admission for cats to,
I don't know, juggle.
I don't know.
It's just so demeaning to the animal.
And if you see something going on where you go,
ugh, follow that thought for a second.
Animals deserve the same amount of dignity that humans do.
I mean, at the end of the day, there are 90+ million cats
in homes in the United States for a reason.
We love them.
And we don't love them because they act like dogs,
and we don't love them because they act like children.
I hope that we have them in our homes
because they act like cats, and we respect that.
My hope is this, folks, is that when
a cat walks in a room all regal and lovely,
you just take that second, and you go, man,
that is one gorgeous animal.
I don't need to put a hat on that animal.
I don't need to hide this animal's litterbox
underneath a floorboard in the garage.
I don't need to declaw this cat.
I don't need to make this cat who he's not.
He's gorgeous just the way he is.
And I'm telling you, in terms of the work that I
do helping people understand their cats to help
correct behavior problems, this is ground zero.
You are who you are, and likewise, your cat
is who your cat is.
Now, if you know me, you know I'm all
about the challenge line.
I'm all about making your cat the best version of themselves
that you can make them.
But that doesn't mean making them more human.
And that is the period on that sentence.
I know we've got plenty more to say about this,
and we can talk about it more in our upcoming Google Hangouts.
You can also leave me comments in the comments section
below here, and let's just-- let's be nice about it,
but let's remember-- what would the cat do?
I'm off to go and enroll my cat into law school,
because that cat had better start paying
the bills around here, man.
You know how much that cat costs?
Until next time.
All light, all love, and all mojo to you.
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