Dear Editor:
Granted the world has been consumed over the past several months with a much more life threatening crisis; but footprints of a cat in the early morning snow recently engaged my brain to veer from this present all-encompassing pre-occupation, at least momentarily.
The distraction? The realization of our huge self-imposed inequality between our treatment of domestic cats and dogs!
It would seem that cats have been given the royal treatment and reign supreme over their domestically shared counterpart, the dog.
Consider if you will, the fact that it is legally obligatory to register your dog and have him/her licensed, complete with an annual fee. Bylaws also require that a dog be under the owner’s control 100% of the time, usually in the form of a leash or confinement in an enclosed yard.
A dog’s barking can also lead to a visit by the local constabulary, and of course, no walk would be complete without the famed “doggie bag” (I often wonder what my golden retriever thinks when his deposits are picked up immediately and carried with care by his owner back to a depository in the family home).
On the contrary, cats reign supreme! There is no annual fee or registration of any kind required. They are never restricted in their movements. They are free to hunt nesting birds, rabbits and small wildlife exclusively to suffice their predatory nocturnal desires. They seem to wail at will, although not necessarily within earshot of its owner. Most despicable of all, they are free to dig up a neighbour’s garden in order to deposit their ammonia-scented excrement far away from their own abode.
But then again, maybe this isn’t a case of cat versus dog, but rather one of responsibility. A dog owner’s responsibility is mandated by law; a cat’s only by the sense of responsibility of its owner. It’s high time we equated this inequality.
In a sense, this is not in any way dissimilar to our sense of responsibility, attitude and consideration for our neighbours predicated by the current medical crisis in our worldwide community.
Ron Johnson,
Mount Forest