Kittens, Brains, and Burned-Out Political Activists

[queerbychoice]

You people are so completely fantastic. On the spur of the moment I dash off a two-sentence LiveJournal entry that's not even two full lines long, and you deluge me with two pages full of some 75 comments. Okay, so a good 25 or so of those comments were my own, but the rest weren't. I will never, never, never lack for literarily inclined company with you people around. Nothing but book lovers as far as the eye can see.

As a meager attempt at thanking you, I offer you a hyperlink which a great many of you, like me, will feel a need for: Dealing with or Preventing Activist Burnout. It was passed on to me by ethosgurl.

I had a dream last night that I adopted a tiny grey kitten, perhaps 10 weeks old - or more accurately, it adopted me. I saw its picture in the newspaper first, and fell in love with it, but tried to talk myself out of calling the phone number to request to adopt it since I've never owned a cat while living on my own before and I don't know whether I'm up to the responsibility - but then I decided to call the number specifically to force myself to stop wanting it so badly, since I figured the odds were strongly in favor of a hundred other newspaper readers already having called to try to adopt it. So I called, but the lady on the other end of the phone said that actually the kitten had escaped somehow and run away so they couldn't give it to anyone at all. And at that moment the kitten showed up on my doorstep, mewing to be let in, and curled up on my bed and demanded to be allowed to stay. Then a bunch of my family members and coworkers and some random Star Trek characters and pretty much everybody you could ever think of started crowding into my apartment for no reason that was ever very clearly explained, and I was trying to hide the kitten because I wasn't ready to publicly commit myself to deciding to own a kitten just yet, but I also didn't want to put it outside and risk losing it forever, and it was a typical cheerful active playful kitten that would never stay hidden wherever I tried to hide it, so people kept discovering it and the word was slowly getting around.

And then there was a funeral for someone, I think it was for Jean-Luc Picard's grandmother, and we all had to attend the funeral and it was raining and we all had to stand around in the rain looking down at the coffin from some foldable steps like those ascending aluminum benches they always put out for the audiences at amateur baseball games, and Picard was standing on one of the steps next to me speaking very very sadly. And then we all went back to my apartment, but suddenly there was a gunshot and everyone grabbed rifles and started prowling around looking scared to death trying to figure out who had fired on us, and it turned out that war had just been declared and we all had to make a run for it to try to escape the city.

But then I went back to my bedroom (which was now somehow my childhood bedroom instead of my apartment bedroom) to find the grey kitten, and the grey kitten was right outside my window playing with a spider and it was adorable and there was no more war, there was just this idyllic scene of an adorable grey kitten playing with a spider. Only, then I looked closer and realized it was a black widow spider, and the kitten grabbed it between its front paws and the spider bit the kitten and the kitten flinched and dropped the spider, and I ran screaming for my mother to ask whether there was any chance for the kitten to survive this at all (in real life we had a lot of black widow spiders in the house where I grew up and they killed some of our cats by biting them). But my mother said there was an antidote, so since I had seen the kitten get bitten, all I had to do was go get the kitten and rush it to the vet and get the antidote administered before the kitten died.

And then I woke up. I don't know what all that was about, but it sure did leave me wanting a kitten.

Two weeks ago my parents' fifteen-year-old golden retriever finally died, not unexpectedly, and a few days thereafter they replaced her with a humongous 91-pound black labrador retriever/German shepherd/various-other-things mix, whom they have named Nike. Yes, Nike - after the notoriously exploitative running shoe corporation. I told them I'm appalled by their lack of political consideration, but it did no good. At least if I got a kitten I'd give it a decent name. I want a kitten. Maybe I should get a kitten. I don't know, I can't decide. And some cats have so very much better personalities than other cats; how can I ever trust myself to pick out a nice one instead of a monster?

And then there's this weird Brain Usage Profile thing.

Your Brain Usage Profile:
Auditory : 44%
Visual : 55%
Left : 60%
Right : 40%

The plain numbers seem reasonable enough, but their more detailed profile doesn't really sound particularly like me at all.

Gayle, you are somewhat left-hemisphere dominant and show a preference for visual learning, although not extreme in either characteristic. You probably tend to do most things in moderation, but not always.

Your left-hemisphere dominance implies that your learning style is organized and structured, detail oriented and logical. Your visual preference, though, has you seeking stimulation and multiple data. Such an outlook can overwhelm structure and logic and create an almost continuous state of uncertainty and agitation. You may well suffer a feeling of continually trying to "catch up" with yourself.

Your tendency to be organized and logical and attend to details is reasonably well-established which should afford you success regardless of your chosen field of endeavor. You can "size up" situations and take in information rapidly. However, you must then subject that data to being classified and organized which causes you to "lose touch" with the immediacy of the problem.

Your logical and methodical nature hamper you in this regard though in the long run it may work to your advantage since you "learn from experience" and can go through the process more rapidly on subsequent occasions.

You remain predominantly functional in your orientation and practical. Abstraction and theory are secondary to application. In keeping with this, you focus on details until they manifest themselves in a unique pattern and only then work with the "larger whole."

With regards to your career choices, you have a mentality that would be good as a scientist, coach, athlete, design consultant, or an engineering technician. You can "see where you want to go" and even be able to "tell yourself," but find that you are "fighting yourself" at the darndest times.

Sorry, no, I don't think that I live my life in "an almost continuous state of uncertainty and agitation" or "suffer a feeling of continually trying to 'catch up' with [my]self" or "find that [I am] 'fighting [my]self' at the darnedest times" to any greater extent than the average person does.

Except in regard to kitten acquisition, of course.

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

If you take the kitten once it is old enough to leave its mother, and are very tactile and loving with it, you can generally bring it up to a nice cathood. Of course, it may be more or less affectionate, but if it is well treated as a kitten, it will usually not be a monster. My mother has a gift for this - all her cats (and she always has two), are delightful.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Oh, get a kitten! I've been wanting to have a cat all my life. And it's as great as I'd hoped! Having this wonderful purry furball around is such a treat. Yeah, I have to be responsible and feed her and clean her litter and take her to the vet, and arrange for her care when I travel, but she's So Worth It! It's been two years now that she's been here with me, and it's been great!

As to how I chose her, actually we both chose each other. I don't know how to choose a cat that will fit your tastes, but do try to play with many kittens, and ask the current "owner" about their habits -- shy, aggressive, scared, affectionate, etc. And if you get the kitten young enough -- 12 weeks is a nice age to get them -- you get a chance to raise the kitty your way. I didn't get that chance with Mira since she was ~7 months when I got her. But she's great, I'm still ecstatic to have her with me.

=^..^=

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

By far the best cats we ever had in my childhood were the ones born with us who we kept with their mother and petted constantly all day long, so I do know that if I get a kitten I would like it to be one from a family of small children who petted it constantly all day long. Once it comes to me, though, I'm afraid I won't be able to give it enough petting to improve things much, because I'm always gone all day at work and there'd be nobody around to pet it.

It's hard to find them as old as twelve weeks, too. Most people seem to give them away by 8 weeks, and I'd prefer them to stay with their mother for longer than that.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree that you should get a kitten. I'm in favor of getting one from the pound (in part because of the whole saving a life aspect, but also because one can then choose from a large range of kittens and tell difference in personality.

From my experience and the experience of people I've known, I've only seen a few things to watch out for.

Don't get manic or aggressive kittens, they grow up to be manic and aggressive cats.

Don't get pathologically shy or frightened kittens, since they will almost certainly continue to be frightened of you for the rest of its life (my mom has a tendency to adopt cats like this and I wouldn't want anyone to get stuck with such a creature).

If you pick out an 8-12 week old kitten that is both willing to play and willing to sit in your arms, then the odds are exceptionally good that you will have an excellent cat. Also, remember that cats sleep far more than humans, likely it will sleep while you are at work. Just make certain to pay attention to it when you get home (both play and affection) and it should be a very happy and well-adjusted creature.

If you get one, please post pictures.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

The way I see it, any kitten that a family is trying to give away could just as easily end up in the pound if no one claims it, so the same saving a life aspect still applies.

I have a great deal of experience picking out cats. Over the course of my life with my parents, we owned at least 13 cats, of which many were from the pound and many were from families and 4 were born in our house and many were personally picked out by me. I have lots of trial and error experience. However, I still find that you just can't predict these things very well. The most recent kitten I picked out from the pound seemed entirely friendly the whole time I sat there at the pound petting it, but in the back seat of the car on the way home from the pound, she sank her teeth very very deeply into my hand for no apparent reason whatsoever, and this is what she continued doing to everyone quite frequently for the rest of her one and a half year life. I've never had any other cat even one five hundredth as vicious as she was - she was determined to kill us all! She would stalk us too, and come flying out at us from hidden corners with all claws extended and sink them into us! She was the only cat we ever had who, when she died, I was really rather relieved.

[donutgirl.livejournal.com]

Nike was the Greek goddess of victory, long before she was an exploitative shoe company.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the goddess's name is pronounced nih-KEHH, whereas the shoe company and the dog are both pronounced NYE-kee.

[groovycat.livejournal.com]

you could always try for a purebred cat left at the pound. you'd be surprised how often a nice purebred gets left there. and cats are always easier to find than kittens, but harder to get adopted. do a little research on the more common breeds to see which ones generally have the best personalities so that you can request them. of my current three cats, we only got one as a kitten. they're all purebred tonkinese, as my neighbour used to breed them and then we would adopt the ones he couldn't sell or keep (charli has a visible birth defect, asher is extremely nervous and also asthmatic). a cat is less likely to change personality on you, and also less energetic so less likely to destroy your apartment while you're out. :)

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Why would I care whether a cat is purebred or not?

I've never had a purebred cat. Just tabbies and plain black cats and once a fluffy grey thing that we speculated was part maine coon. And when I was really rally little, so little that I can only just barely remember her at all, some long-haired white cat with various different colored spots.

[groovycat.livejournal.com]

because they are generally bred to have specific personality traits, so it's less of a guessing game. there's nothing wrong with non-purebreds, i had one of those too until my parents gave her away while i was at college, but they aren't as predictable. that's all.

[lightenup.livejournal.com]

you deluge me with two pages full of some 75 comments

Well, thats just because you're wonderful isn't it? ;)  Actually, I'm introducing myself. I've been reading you for a while but have only just begun a journal. And its fun, not least the comments I've been getting about the "creepy" icon. "What is that!!!". LOL

I'm writing a serious piece tentatively titled "Why Bowie matters", taken after "Why Orwell matters" i.e. - a person whose vision changed the way we think, and a message that, if anything, gets more relevant by the day. Would you like to contribute a quote or two?

[lightenup.livejournal.com]

... perhaps by way of an interview?

Interview Questions

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

1. What's your sexual preference?
2. Do you have a religion?
3. How'd you find my journal?
4. How old are you?
5. What's the best thing that's ever happened in your life?
6. What does your bedroom look like?
7. What are the weirdest things about you?

Re: Interview Questions

[lightenup.livejournal.com]

1. Basically lesbian women which means I don't get to see much sex. Seriously, I was tramatised by severe bullying at two all male schools, and have little to no contract with males if I can avoid it. The more a woman is looking for a daddy, the less I fit the bill

2. No. I was brought up a Roman Catholic - see above comment, now I am an explorer.

3. Mahir Cagri ... writing a sort of where are they now look at internet fads

4 33 - "they'll want their money back if your alive at 33

5. A severe bout of depression that left me with no fear of death

6. A total mess. Computer pieces everywhere, books stacked high and low, dominated by large blue sofa matress on the floor where I spend most of my time.

7. (a) "i've lived all over the world, i've left everyplace" US, UK, Ireland, Germany, Greece - now back to Sydney Australia, probably for good.

(b) I really don't want much from other people other than an occasional pat on the head. My life is all about giving - ppl spend ages looking for motives, without much success.

[lightenup.livejournal.com]

7 (a) ... and if you know a bit about Sydney, you'll know why that is wierd! But if the situation is bad here, what can I say? Blair, Bush, Burlusconi?