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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   3760 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 8, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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We took our kid to the cat theatre today. A bit of fun to start the holiday season: it's basically a play for children with various circus-style tricks performed by cats. Its original founder, the father of the current manager, was never coy about his role: "I can't teach a cat to perform tricks, no one can, I can only take a hundred cats and find out which ones are naturally inclined to perform which tricks".

So that's how the performance goes: this cat is great at climbing poles, that cat is good at walking along them, the third one doesn't mind walking on top of a large ball, the fourth one loves to jump, et cetera. But the big problem for a viewer prone to overanalyzing everything lies not in the cats or the humans. The show uses a couple of white poodles for certain tasks that are too big for the cats and it's like watching ChatGPT being used to check someone's spelling.

The complexity of dog tricks is kept in line with the cat tricks to not detract from the latter and you can't help but feel untapped potential. No, you can't get a dog to perform every trick a cat can, but when you see a dog push a cart it does it with eagerness and purposefulness that suggest this is what you could've had instead, whereas you see the cat's final and only form on stage.

Is there a deeper meaning to this, a lesson for us all? No idea, but if you ever find yourself with children in Moscow, go see the cat theatre.

this

What thousands of years of selective breeding does to a mf…

My personal favorite is Pink, but I want to share Lobo the husky. Poor thing is not optimized for this, but goodness, he seems to be having a lot of fun anyway. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a cat having fun in my life. Whether feisty or tripping, they just look so highly strung.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a cat having fun in my life. Whether feisty or tripping, they just look so highly strung.

Really? My cats spend a lot of time absolutely chilling. Find a nice place in the yard and sit there and take in the sights.

Sorry, they’re totally capable of chilling. I’m saying they don’t get excited without looking on edge, not like a dog can.

But this is definitely cat-specific. Some just look pissed by default.

Yeah, I think for them excitement is usually tied to the thrill of the hunt. Although my cats are also excited to see me when I'm back after a vacation, that seems to be excitement mixed with reproach.

Having gotten a couple cats recently, I've ended up down a YouTube rabbit hole of old Animal Planet episodes of My Cat From Hell and It's Me or the Dog, shows where a celebrity animal trainer comes and helps out an owner of a misbehaving cat and dog, respectively, and the contrast in those perfectly matches what you've noticed about cats and and dogs, as well as the wider stereotype. In the cat show, most of the trainer's work is in creating indirect benefits for the cat, including better home environment, a schedule, exercise routine, and such, which ideally results in the cat being able to better channel their instincts towards behavior befitting a pet cat rather than a feral predator. In the dog show, most of the trainer's work is in directly engaging with the dogs and training them to respond to specific commands in specific ways that directly address the exact behavior problems they have. Though the latter does often involve the indirect stuff like routine and diet, too.

Is there a deeper meaning to this, a lesson for us all?

I dunno, but I know what Stonetoss would have to say on the matter.

Man, what a tool.

Internet atheism may be dead, but the spirit of smugposting lives on.

I find some of his comics funny, but a lot of them are pretty poor, or too extremely online to be properly funny.

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