So over on the Men’s Rights subreddit – you know, the old one, not its newfangled would-be replacement – the fellas are complaining about how oppressive it is for a university to put up signs suggesting that consent is good and rape is bad.
Clearly, these signs are an insult to non-rapist men, in the same way that “don’t feed the animals” signs in zoos are an insult to those of us who aren’t planning to feed the animals.
Happily, the dude calling himself anti-everyone has come up with a way to fight back against this feminazi tyranny:
Is the Poster Revolution moving to its next stage?
because I thought if I did and I was wrong, i’d look like a complete foooool.
Then again, I tend to think that every time I post anyway. It’s just amplified if there’s the chance i’m being wrong somewhere. o.o
I am so sad and tired right now. My kitty was up all night vomiting and crying and I am terrified that he is blocked again. We just had to pay almost 2000 dollars to get him treated and we are completely out of money. My husband is taking him to the vet this morning and I am desperately hoping it is just a hairball or stomach bug. Any good thoughts would be much appreciated.
http://mattbors.com/blog/2012/08/27/white-dudes-talkin-rape/
BTW. This is Nanasha.
Nanasha, so sorry about your kitty. Hopefully it’s something easily treatable!
*sends hugs and good vibes to Nanasha* Sorry to hear about kitty 🙁
@blitzgal: Thumbs up for Matt Bors!
@Nanasha: Wow, your comment wasn’t even up when I clicked “post!”
I’m really sorry to hear about your kitty, and I’m sending good vibrations and internet hugs your way.
Oh that’s terrible news. He has had intestinal blockages in the past? That poor little dude. I hope he turns out okay.
Nanash, I hope for the best for your kitty. *crossing fingers* Hang in there.
We have been feeding him a special vet prescribed wet and dry food diet but I have taken away all his dry food and heated his wet food slightly with some extra water to keep him from dehydrating. He ate it like a champ and was keeping it down for a bit but then he started retching so I picked him up and ran him to the sink. Luckily he did not keep retching or throw up so I am hoping this is an improvement.
But yeah. I just don’t know what I am going to do if it is serious. We rescued him from the shelter’s death row a couple years ago. He was already an adult and he is all black so they were just going to throw him away. I just can’t help but feel like I have failed him. 🙁
Nanasha, I am so sorry about your kitty! I hope he will be OK!
So that’s true — people don’t adopt black cats due to the superstition about them? That’s so freakin’ ridiculous.
You didn’t fail him. You’ve gone above and beyond to do everything you could for his health and gave him love. But don’t talk in past tense just yet — he may pull through. But every day of a loving home is one more day that a rescued animal would not have had.
I totally understand that feeling, though. I hand fed and watered my Max the last week of his life when he was poisoned by cat food, until I finally had to have him put down because he still couldn’t eat or drink on his own. I will still blame myself for his death for the rest of my life, because I didn’t know the food was killing him until it was too late. He didn’t show the standard signs of infection, unfortunately, so the vet didn’t even know. She thought it was “pancreatitis.” It wasn’t until my second cat also got sick that we figured it out but it was too late for Maxwell.
Nanasha, you haven’t failed your cat. You rescued him (I love black cats especially, because of that idiot superstition) and have given him a loving home. You can’t know his medical history before he found you, so don’t beat yourself up over what you’ve had no control over. Keep doing what you’re doing, and make sure he feels loved and safe.
Blitzgal, same for you. You did nothing wrong! Was it the tainted pet food that made the news a few years ago? You had no way of knowing. A few years ago I nearly killed our diabetic cat with an overdose of insulin. As it turned out, his diabetes was in remission but I didn’t know and gave him his regular shot. A trip to the emergency vet saved him, but there was major guilt about it. But I didn’t know that diabetes could reverse, and didn’t know. And you had no way of knowing that the food was toxic. Don’t blame yourself for what was out of your control.
People who open their hears and homes to shelter pets haven’t failed them. You’ve done them the greatest service that anyone can do. Give them love and safety and security, and know that you’ve done the very best you can.
You didn’t fail him. You’ve gone above and beyond to do everything you could for his health and gave him love. But don’t talk in past tense just yet — he may pull through. But every day of a loving home is one more day that a rescued animal would not have had.
This paragraph is made of awesome and kitten hugs.
I’m just transferring a load of old MiniDV home movies to my hard drive, and I’m wincing at the sight of my then toddler son drinking milk and being fed milk chocolate – at the time we had absolutely no idea that he was totally dairy-intolerant, to such an extent that the last time he accidentally had anything with milk in it, he was practically bedridden for three days.
But you can’t beat yourself up about this kind of thing: not only did you not know, you had no plausible way of knowing. So what could you do?
Oh, Nanasha. That’s awful.
I lost a kitten this spring… I’ll never get to know why. I spent money until we came to the point where they couldn’t offer me any hope that more money would do any good, and it was money I didn’t have anyway.
It’s the saddest. (she was a black cat, too, with a tiny little white clerical collar)
It’s so sad that critters that do nothing but spread love everywhere they go live such a short life.
Just to connect this back to thread a little bit…
It was the first time I ever gave myself permission to cry when I was sad. I just sat in my bathtub and sobbed for an hour. It was incredibly cathartic.
It was the first time that I realized my dad, who I generally think of as pretty sensitive, is completely unable to do anything in the face of sorrow and mourning. I told him what had happened and he left the room to go get my mother.
I told him my cat had died, and he had to leave the room and go get my mother.
(and ice cream)
That’s what the patriarchy does to men.
In the end there were only two things she really enjoyed. Being outside in the sun, and being held. She would still purr, right to the end. So I took her into the sun and held her while she slipped away.
A few months before a close friend’s twelve-year-old had lost her cat, the one that she’d had since she was a baby. And she was completely broken up about it. And, being religious, she asked about cats and heaven. I told her, I don’t know about that, but I know that while he was here with you, you made every day heaven to him.
Best wishes to you and your cat, Nanasha. You haven’t failed, you’ve done your best to do right by your kitty. That’s all anyone can do.
Nanasha, you didn’t fail your cat! You rescued him and gave him a great home, and you’re doing the right things to get him treated.
Same for you, Blitzgal! It’s really hard to handle sick cats because they’re so good at hiding their sickness, and how could you have known the food was toxic?
I understand the feelings of guilt; I felt them too when my cat Bobo got sick, and I still feel them a bit to this day. I think the guilt is just a sign that you care for your cats deeply and want to do everything you can for them.
It sucks that your cat is sick, Nanasha. I hope it’s nothing serious and they get better soon.
Ugh, that poor kid. Does that mean even most baked goods are out for him? It’s really tough with dietary restrictions. I know one girl who is allergic to those pheno-somethings that are in soda (and lots of other things). There are so many things she can’t eat. I think it’s not even an allergy, her body literally cannot process them.
I’m better about Max now. It’s been four years. He was likely hit by e.coli or salmonella, in Iams food, which I will never buy again for the rest of my life. It was about a year after the other pet food outbreak, which was something that caused kidney failure. Logically I know that I’m last in the “blame” category — honestly, after blood tests and everything we did at the vet, the vet should’ve known it wasn’t pancreatitis. But Iams is number one to blame. They killed my cat.
But it’s really hard to get over the fact that I was literally poisoning him every day. Sophie is lucky; when she got sick she got the straight-forward symptom of bloody diarrhea, so when I took her in, they instantly said, “Infection.” THAT’S when I put it together and realized it was the food, but by then Max was dead.
I’ll be in Chicago starting tonight, for Chicon (Shaennon, are you attending?). So I’ll be a bit less active.
I just feel all guilty for the times I shushed him. He is part Siamese and very chatty but his meow sounds like a baby’s cry. It actually used to make my breasts let down when I was lactating and breast feeding my daughter. I also feel guilty because we live in an apartment and not a house, so his territory is much smaller. And the upstairs neighbor’s cat is a territorial asshole but we do not have the funds or finances to move.
I am also set to take unpaid maternity leave in less than two months. At that time, only my husband’s part time job will be bringing in money. We already spent a good chunk of my leave savings for his operation, and if he needs another, we wont be able to cover rent and food.
Plus, my work has changed my insurance requirements, so now I will be forced to pay my entire 1600 dollar per month premium to go on leave and still have health coverage. And did I mention that I have PCOS and Hashimotos Thyroidosis so I need health care to cover my meds and labs to keep me and my family healthy?
Blah. It just goes to show that life has a way of kicking you extra hard when you’re down.
Ah, Nanasha, that sucks. But indoor cats can live happy lives, even with a small territory. Make sure he’s got comfy places to lie down, stimulating toys (that red dot is Teh Enemy!), and lots of love. Maybe this is a temporary thing and not another blockage. If it’s hot where you are, maybe it’s a complication from the weather. It does happen, sometimes.
*bawls*