I expected something truly extravagant when a reader wrote to Slate’s advice column to say she was considering doing something “wildly elitist” involving her cat.
What could it be? I wondered. Pure gold or silver eating and drinking bowls, a la Choupette? A fashionable $600 pet stroller like the young, childless women of Tokyo favor for their felines? Feeding premium meat from the butcher exclusively to her cat?
None of the above, it turns out. The allegedly “wildly elitist” thing this woman was deliberating was simply paying a veterinarian to have dental work done on her cat, with costs estimated at between $800 and $2,000, depending on the extent of the kitty’s cavities.
To make matters even stranger, the letter writer says the cost won’t be a financial hardship for her family. Their cat is only three years old, she notes, and the family has had him since he was found on the street as a kitten.
“I guess I didn’t think that part of taking him in would entail thousands of dollars to keep him alive at this stage of the game,” she wrote. “At what point do people draw the line on what it costs to save a cat’s life?”
The writer was essentially looking for “permission” to have the cat put down, for Slate’s advice columnist to virtually pat her on the head, say “There, there!” and agree that taking care of your own cat is “wildly elitist.”
Thankfully, Slate columnist Athena Valentine was having none of it, telling the woman seeking advice that “when you adopt an animal, you take financial responsibility.” Spending money on veterinary care when needed, Valentine noted, is “exactly what you signed up for” by adopting the little guy. A cat who, by the way, could easily live another decade at least.
“If you do not want to pay for your cat’s treatment, please surrender him to a rescue that will,” Valentine wrote. “The rescue will raise the funds you do not want to part with to pay for his teeth and will then adopt him out to a new home that understands the responsibilities of pet ownership. I also advise you to not adopt any more animals until you’re fully ready to accept the financial obligations that come with it.”
Cheers to Valentine for not taking the bait.
Do your feline overlords use their own beds?
One of the first things I bought for Bud, along with his litter box, bowls and toys, was a bed. It’s nothing extravagant, but it does look pretty comfortable.
He has never used it.
Or rather, he lounged on it a handful of times when he was a kitten, but he claimed my bed as his own. He was very clear on the new ownership situation, and generously allowed me to continue sleeping on my his bed as long as I accepted the fact that he would use me as a pillow, which he has been doing for more than a decade now.
A Newsweek story details the efforts of a woman who bought her cat a new bed, hoping he’d let her sleep at night, only for the feline overlord to drag his new bed onto her bed. Essentially, she bought him a new pillow.
Do cats ever do what we want them to? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way.
A cat whose fantasy soccer team ranked 222 out of 13 million players
At The Athletic, Conor Schmidt writes about creating a fantasy football (soccer) team for his cat, and letting the little guy choose who to draft and trade by writing the names of players on a dry erase board and putting treats next to each name. The first treat his cat goes for is the one whose associated player is dealt or drafted.
He says his cat reached an astonishing world ranking of 222 out of almost 13 million players on the same platform worldwide, which means either the little dude has incredible luck, or he’s a genius who knows a lot more than he lets on.
Maybe I should register a fantasy basketball or baseball team for Buddy, smear turkey gravy next to players’ names, and see how he does.
Pain In The Bud 
Bella has a fancy bed plus 3 cat towers that are in different rooms around the house, she has used the bed maybe three times and the cat towers very occasionally so she can sit in a high spot and feel safe ( apart from the scratchy posts that she loves) – She loves her “hidyholes” which are various cupboards ( where we have to leave the doors always open..) and her “mountaineering” escapades on top of wardrobes and units – sometimes its amazing how she gets up that high! –
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Does she come into the house every night? She really rules your house, which is as it should be.
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She has her own microchipped cat flap at the back of the house meaning Bella can come through it but it keeps the “Simba of Borg” out! – she also sits by the front door and yowls for us to open it so she can go out the front when she wishes to… basically she can come and go at anytime , she also has indoor litter trays that she uses whenever she can’t be bothered to go out! – so yes – she rules our lives completely !
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I’m glad to hear Little Buddy is happily hogging his Human’s bed in spite of the fact that he’s got his own bed, which he ignores. My Baby is the same way. Kitties 😸 are so funny.
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Yep. I realized almost immediately I wasn’t gonna win that battle. He was an absolute terror as a kitten, tearing around the bedroom, ricocheting off the walls, gleefully biting my feet, smacking me in the face and retreating back into the shadows while trilling happily. Eventually he’d tire out and crash, and I’d wake up with this tiny kitten somehow hogging most of the bed while I was dangling off the side.
But then one night shortly after adopting him, I woke up and found him clinging to my right arm, with all four paws wrapped around it, snoozing contentedly. I was happy that he felt safe.
So we put up with their weird stuff because they’re awesome, amusingly weird and lovable.
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One. No one buys a cat bed anymore. Will they use it? Maybe. Owners bed IS the cats bed. Two. Sadly, a lot of rescue groups will not see the red flags of that shitty owner. If cats and dogs do not get dental work when needed they will die.
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They have a tough job screening applicants. Some things you can’t know ahead of time, no matter how well you screen.
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We still buy them. I use one as a pillow on the couch and one to keep cat toys in.
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I hope the lady takes care of her cat’s teeth. That’s just terrible. So glad Valentine set her straight on that.
Little Buddy is so smart to take your bed over. lol It’s sweet he uses you as his pillow. haha
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He always does. I’m like his traveling pillow, security blanket and servant all in one.
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I hear you with that! lol
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Yes, pet “ownership” is a serious responsibility, sometimes with expensive consequences. Putting a pet down should only be done if there is no other way to relieve an animal’s acute suffering. Seems to me that too many people get pets without thinking through the possible consequences.
The story of the cat choosing his own fantasy soccer team reminds me that when, in 1994, the UK introduced a National Lottery we invited our pet hamster to choose our 6 lottery numbers. We placed him at the centre of a circle of 49 cards – each marked up with a number between 1 and 49 – and recorded which six numbers he first crossed when seeking out the food items we had scattered outside the circle. Needless to say we remained impoverished, though Hambo definitely put on some weight!
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Hambo must have been like “When do I get to choose the lotto numbers again?” Haha.
I took a quick look at the UK national lottery system just now because I was curious to see how it was structured, and I like the idea of a broader range of beneficiaries. In the US, the money goes to schools, but we already spend more than any other country per pupil with mixed results.
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Nearly 20 years ago I successfully “liberated” a substantial sum from the National Lottery to fund a project in our nearby city, a project from which local people still benefit. It was one of the highlights of my career, so I’m a big fan of the National Lottery!
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Cats’ teeth are notorious for causing health problems if not cared for. Which is why I adopted brushing teeth when Diego was alive (R.I.P.) and made sure both Ramses and The Kid got accustomed to it early on. An ounce of prevention and all that. BTW, neither of them mind and they love the taste of the cat toothpaste I buy – even Diego who got the treatment later in his life.
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What kind of toothpaste do you use, and how do you apply it? Pain In The Bud here acts like I’m murdering him every time I do anything like trimming his claws, no matter how gentle I am.
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I’ve recently learned that cat’s toe pads are EXTREMELY sensitive which might be why he objects. Sometimes Ramses will hiss at me, too, when trimming his claws.
I use Petrodex enzymatic toothpaste for cats. They like the Chicken flavor but LOVE the malt. It comes with a brush. You only brush the outside edges of the teeth.
Aso comes with a fingertip brush but I never liked using it.
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Thanks for the recommendation. Yeah, it may be the paw pads or he may just enjoy being a relentless pain in the ass, knowing he’ll always get away with it because I can never be mad at him.
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I wonder why the link doesn’t appear in my comment…
If anyone’s interested and cannot find Petrodex locally (which I for some reason cannot) it’s available on Amazon for under $10. Just make sure you get the one for cats only.
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I can see the link. Maybe it’s your browser?
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Today our newest addition to the cat clowder went to the vet and returned with a $380 bill. She was given medication, was bathed and examined. She had worms and fleas but no disease. I consider that bill a bargain, not a luxury.
To ask for permission to deny an animal treatment is so awful I can’t describe it without using obscenities.
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The phrasing reeks of virtue signaling as well. “Wildly elitist,” as if getting veterinary care for the animal she adopted, which she can easily afford by her own admission, is somehow morally wrong because it’s money spent on an animal instead of, presumably, people who might need it.
It stretches credulity that the money would be donated to a soup kitchen or shelter if it wasn’t used for necessary vet costs.
Which of course would be beside the point. I don’t like it when people make the claim that helping animals and people are mutually exclusive, as if we shouldn’t feed a cat or provide shelter until every human in every corner of the world reaches some arbitrary level of comfort.
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Also I’m glad to hear your cat didn’t have any serious health problems. Worms and fleas are not comfortable, but they’re easily curable.
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To Quilpy. I broke down when my vet said my cat needed dental work. Did not have money for it. I was considering putting him to dleep because i knew what his end would be. I wanted to die. My vet found someone who did it for free. She said she wanted to hrlp me because of the 15 years of cat rescue i did.
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I’m glad you have a compassionate and caring vet.
A friend of mine just had dental work done on both of his cats. They were older but otherwise in good health BUT they had to lose some of their teeth. It was expensive but in the long run saved them from developing issues related to gum disease and whatnot.
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M. Valentine gave a real, down-to-earth reply.
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Indeed. She wasn’t overly harsh, but she said what needed to be said.
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My son and I were looking for a new cat tree online and ran across some very nice cat beds. He reminded me that of all the cats beds we’ve had, exactly 2 of them got any use whatsoever. Cats do not like to be told where to sleep
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They really don’t, although Bud considers me his bed, so wherever I sleep, he sleeps.
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To M. Yes. But i do pay it forward when i can. I catsit free of charge for the fosters in my neighborhood for a cat rescue. I fell in love with this black cat named Cosmo. Nutty cat. Watches baking shows with me.
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I love having my cats sleep on OUR bed.
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That’s right. Pretend you partially own it! lol
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What kind of crazy person buys a cat bed thinking that the cat is going to sleep on it? We were just the opposite, we wanted Meiriona to sleep in bed with us so we gave her treats in bed to encourage her. So now she follows us upstairs when we go to bed, eats her treats then immediately takes off to sleep downstairs on the couch.
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That’s funny that she had to be encouraged instead of simply taking it over. For me, it was like little dude came striding out of his carrier, started looking around and declaring “Mine! Mine! Mine!” Little weirdos. That’s why we love ’em.
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