The brown fountain.

Hi I Sperg,

Firstly, after reading this - I'm glad your cat is OK and hope you're doing better also now.

Secondly, I completely agree with you and most of the others in this thread. I absolutely ADORE my cat and would do anything for her. When I lost my previous cat and getting the one I have now - I was at one of the lowest points - have had a couple more low points, but thanks to having my cat now - feeling low is relieved sooner as I can talk to my cat about anything - more than I actually tell people and I know she can keep my secrets. 
Plus she's such a mad little thing - she might as well be a child lol. She's 10 years old now and she does sometimes act like she's 10 months old - playful, fun and very vocal, but would I change her...absolutely not!

She's gone through her own 'brown phase' (shall I put it), but I didn't let it bother me and just quietly and gently cleaned her up and took her to the vets - just in case - thankfully all was well and she is completely fine now.

I do have other animals as well and I love them too...but if I had to have one animal always in my life - it would definitely have to be a cat!

Sending hugs to your cat (and yourself if you'll allow it).

Mweekie xx

Having a pet, or better yet, an animal companion could be seen from a different perspective as a marker as to how much spare capacity you have to consider the needs of something/someone else.. My kindness to animals is apparently one of my more attractiev features and I know that people of both sexes occasionally express pleasure when they see me having a nice interaction with our cats. 

People's pets behaviour MAY be a good indicator of their owners more hidden personal qualities. OR it might be that people think that is true. 

I get your point of view I believe, having held similar views myself until a hamster one day started unmistakably playing a game with me, and clearly enjoying it. I don't know how that can be possible with such a tiny brain and all, but it was unmistakeable, and opened my eyes to the fact that amimals have "feelings" occasionally like my own. 

Their simple honesty about what feelings they do experience makes them a refreshing change from the human world of deception and masking and banter and, just, "stuff", PLUS it cannot be denied we generally (less with cats, which I like tbf) have the upper hand in the power dynamics for a change, and we get to play/be the despot or benevolent powerful entity just as we choose.

For those of us that "get" animals there's a terrible urge to "fill in the blanks in the poor persons understanding" just as people get about other things occasionally, but I'm grateful for your as always well expressed point of view.

I am also grateful that you have provided us with a more lighlty moderated and "secure" forum elsewhere on the internet free of charge, and where you have already provided some thought provoking and interesting Autistic information, adn space for more "adult" discussions I believe if people feel the need for those. 

Well maybe thats the point. Maybe pets are for introverts who's idea of adventure is a gental walk in the countryside. People tired of people and excitment ... basicly the polar opposite of me.

Now I think about it mybe being a big pet person is a strong marker of being an introvert. In the online dating world I do tend to avoid girls who are big pet people. Not that that matters when all the girls seem to avoid me.

Yes, of course, but I've never been quite the same....

Was the cat ok?

No I don't have the capacity for any maths, even with specialist help I can't pass a GCSE grade C. I enjoy art, but can barely draw a bath.

Certain apes have really good maths skills. Crows are really good problem solvers

I can adventures with my dog, I have companionship and support from all my animal friends. Very few humans have ever given me any meaningful help or support and sex! I've got no wish for that anymore at all and I like myself this way. I've got used to having nobody to share dadt ideas with or converse about things I'm interested in, at first I really disliked it, but now I'm used to it and don't very often feel the lack of it.

I've done all the going out and being an extrovert, now I'm happy to be in the background and have some peace and quiet with nobody telling me how I ought to be, what I should think or do. I have been accused of lacking sponteniety, but that's been by partners who want me to do things when I have to work, which I don't think is very fair.

TheCatWoman said:

I've got no affinity for higher maths either, or any maths.

No but you could have. Or art. or something that requires the kind of brain power and insight monkeys can't match. Creativity, insight, understanding ... ocasionally even wisdom. These are uniquly human qualities. The nerest you get to enginuity outside of a human is probably a crow droping stones into a bottle to get water out.

TheCatWoman said:

what on earth would I want a lover for?

I can think of a few things. Companionship, adventure, support. Things that inspite of others protests animals can't give. No animal ever gave you advice in a hard situation that made you feel better or promissed to help with your problem. No animal rang you up and said 'hey I've got a crazy idea lets go to X and do Y will you come with me?' No animal ever stayed up late into the night arguing with you in a good nature way about something facinating but pointless, or telling silly jokes or stories.

And sex. I hear sex is quite fun. I'm assuming no one here is getting that from their cat. Some of us have bandwith going spare and it's quite a drag not to have anyone to share it with. (I hear this is called being an extrovert)

I've got no affinity for higher maths either, or any maths.

Cats are much better for cuddling that humans and what on earth would I want a lover for? Humans take up to much bandwidth.

You can teach cats things, but you need to understand cat language, for exmaple most people who don't like cats think that staying very still and not looking at the cat or fiving occasional glances to it will make it not notice you. What the cat see's is someone who's still and calm, who has good manners, it's a hostile act to stare at a cat, they only stare whem afraid or aggessive, friendly looks are slow blinks and a glance then look away. If you don't want a cat to notice you or sit on you then fidget and stare at it.

Small children and the stuff they come out with and the questions they ask are great.

A said:

I have been known to say that I’m something else trapped in a human body. Maybe I was supposed to be a

Me too on that one.  I find animals far easier to understand in terms of what they are thinking, want, hate, need etc.......but the very best thing about animal communication, (for me) is that they don't deliberately dress things up / hide things from you.

Animals are honest and straightforward.  I like that.

It does now occur to me that I’m probably better at cat body language than human body language.

I have been known to say that I’m something else trapped in a human body. Maybe I was supposed to be a cat.

well I've never been particularly good at body language. autism after all. I prefer people tell me what they are feeling with words. That's quite important to me.

Cats can communicate their requirements and moods very clearly. We become very attuned to their body language and wide range of vocalisations.

TheCatWoman said:

You can't cuddle an AI chatbot either or not to the best of my knowlege

Belive me some of us are working on it.

My brother has a cat. He had one growing up too. His cat was always scratching people or things. His new one isn't any difrent. I've seen no indication that cat's are 'teachable'. Dogs maybe. But they are even more work than cats. And frankly one sided conversations don't appeal to me. If I wanted that I could just record a vlog.

Cat's never 'grow out' of being unable to comunicate. At no point will they develop an affinity for higher maths, or art or anything we do with people. Kids are really really expencive though. I'll grant you that. Sure school and health is paid for by the state but just in terms of food and supervision they are a huge sink of time and money.

My thinking. Cuddels are nice but if you want that get a lover, or maybe a good friend. Kids are for enjoying watching and helping a new life become something exceptional. Kids are for conversations about why the sky is blue or why ant man didn't try expanding inside of thanos's bowels (also what friends are for).

You get to enjoy watching kittens and puppies grow up too and they're "childhood" is a lot shorter than that of a human. If you teach them properly then they don't poo on the floor, unless it's an accident due to illness, nor do they wreck your stuff, kids are really expensive. I have far better conversations with my cats than I do with most humans. I prefer animals to most humans too, they're a lot less judgemental than humans, take up less space in the bed and never want to control the remote. You can't cuddle an AI chatbot either or not to the best of my knowlege, I think that might be a bit weird too!

I mean you said it. You pay for it and it poops on your floor, scratches you, wrecks your stuff, needs constant care and atention, and unlike a child is never going to grow into a fully rounded person who can have an interesting conversation with you. An AI chat bot is better than that, cheeper too. I'd rather have kids, not that I'm particularly familly orented. At least you get to enjoy watching them develop into hopfully interesting people.

Peter said:

pets are mostly awful

You could not be more wrong if you tried......in my opinion.

Pets are awesome. I couldn’t be without my furry buddy.

A. Peter, if cats were really "mostly awful", do you think I would maintain one? Let alone have done it several times over my life? I've found nothing in my lofe, (not even sex, drugs or money), that is 100% a bringer of joy with zero cost. In simple terms a cat costs abot 25 quid a week in food, unless you (or the cat) is super resuorceful / overly constrained by poverty) Vetinary costs are variable, ranging from zero (an animal owned by a skint person who does not know about the PDSA, to astronomical, you listen to your vet and get your pet vaccinated, flea treated and intubated (the infamous cat "dental") WE skate a sort of mid path, where we don't get the vaccinations and flea treatments but do have to excercise "vigilance" as a result, and occasionally go fro one of thsoe £100 consutaions and twice in forty or so years, I have had to actually DEAL with fleas. But my cats, on the whole, don't hunt.   

B. Obeyng the principle that you don't HAVE to dive in whenever something truly degenerate pops up on the web, I've managed to not see both "tubgirl" and "two girls one cup". I did get exposed to "meatspin" however when someone maliciously set my browser to point at it towards the end of my spell working for the NHS... 

The vet said that many dogs in the area are currently suffering from a bad stomach, so I guess it was some kind of infection. He’s better now but needed over a week to really be completely okay. That worried me a lot but fortunately he still ate and drank. It’s fine now.

Oh, I see! I thought it was a typo and you meant to say "something which disagreed with him.

I'm obviously too literal with language, as "someone" means an unspecified person, and "person" means a human being. But if you want to use it to include animals, I've no problem with that