My Cat is a Witch; The travails of a Nigerian Cat Owner
Owning a pet ordinarily comes with it's own good and perharps, bad sides. The fact that you have an extra mouth to feed and to generally care for. Perharps the most challenging usually is in taking care of their wastes, and if you are unlucky like me and have to keep your pet totally indoors, you av to be ready to cope with the resultant smell you have for the feaces and urine.
Talk of wastes, from my experience with Freddie. Although cats do have a preference for dropping their feaces (usually in hidden places). This is evident from the fact that they just want the stuff hidden and if he had his way, he would have buried it in the ground if there was any sand around. This might not be same for the urine as some times, he just chooses to do the
business in your least expected places.
So, away from all that to the additional issues faced in choosing to own a cat in this part of the world. It is the stigmatisation that comes with it. YES! Virtually everyone here has a notion about cats, and a wrong one at that. Well, I was virtually like that before I became a cat owner.
I am already used to a one liner question whenever I upload a picture of my cat on social media. They always go this way:
Friend : Wow! You have a cat?
Me : Yes
Friend : Really?
Me : Yes, 😁 any issues.
Friend : Why not a Dog?
Me: Any difference?
Friend : Well... not really, just wondering.
Me : Lol.
After my lol, then I try schooling the user about how cats are awesome pets.
There is usually an already painted picture of a cat to the ordinary Nigerian. Pictures of it as a demonic animal or at least, demonic in waiting. There is also the hoax that a cat spits into your eyes and you go blind. No wonder when my mum came visiting, she was surprised I had a cat. I had intentionally refused to tell her 'cos I thought she might refuse to come if she knew.
Fast forward to her visit,I had told my house mate to help put Freddie in a box I had then so she doesn't see him by surprise so I can just inform her when she was settled. Unfortunately, he forgot and my mum came in with Freddie being the one to welcome her in. Our conversation went thus:
Mum: Haha! You have a cat? (rhethorical question)
Me: Yes, ma.
Mum : Do you have rats here.
Me : Not really(almost wanted to say Yes...lol...didn't want the continues questioning)
She went on another round of same question lol, then I asked if there was any problem with it and she said in our local yoruba language "o o mo pe won ma'n gbabode fun 'yan ni" meaning they can be diabolical (in a nut shell) . Then, I and my friend laughed. This has been the kind of insinuations we have had from friends on social media in the past and had to cope with.
The good thing was that at the end, she made a comment that she even prefer cats to dogs. I did not bother to ask why. I knew my mum has been a die hard hatter of dogs. When my mum is about to enter any compound she knows they have dogs, she is already screaming meters away from the gate for the owners to hold down their dog. That's how much she hated them.
She then mentioned that her aunt had a white cat while she was younger and all. It then boils down to the fact that people just ordinarily have an hatred for the animal called cat.
One of major reasons responsible for this is the way in which the Nigerian movie industry had painted it to us. Most memory we have of a cat when we see one; especially in the night, is that of an old woman who has changed into a cat and is on her way to, or returning from her regular meeting of witches and wizards. A feature which might not be far fetched from the nocturnal nature of the animal.
What's your view of cats?
Do you believe in the diabolic hoax?
Do you have a cat? What are your views?
Let's discuss in the comments section below.
I would say thanks to you for successfully changing my view about cats some months back with Fred's post. I think the society has a major role to play in all of these false believes a it should be handled appropriately
Wow
Of all the species of cats, the domestic cat is the only species able to hold its tail vertically while walking. All species of wild cats hold their tail horizontally or tucked between their legs while walking.
Wow! That's a @diskorvery.
The cat's front paw has 5 toes, but the back paws have 4. Some cats are born with as many as 7 front toes and extra back toes (polydactl).
Interesting! I'll confirm this with Freddie when I get home..lol
You check your cats pulse on the inside of the back thigh, where the leg joins to the body. Normal for cats: 110-170 beats per minute.
Wanna see some more yeah...
Some common houseplants poisonous to cats include: English Ivy, iris, mistletoe, philodendron, and yew.
How are cat's viewed in Asia?
The cats in this picture can't be said to be witches. They are too cute for that. Where you get that, are all those wretched, half-starved, ugly looking ones. Though, not a fault of them but from bad upkeep and care from owners.
This is excellent! Loving the photo's. This article I really nice quality.
Upvoted and Resteemed!
Thanks for the lovely comments...
I like your article @dorth.We have 5 kittens and 4 cats these days at our home .They are our babies .
Wow! That's really cool. Is that in an african home?
Haha , no it's an Asian home .I like your cats and your post .
Okay, cool. I believe a lot of Asians love cats actually. Any myth about them?
My mom used to say "This black cat seems a ginie", but in reality that one who was named" Ash "was the most innocent one .He is no more now but we miss it a lot .
This post has received a 1.38 % upvote from @buildawhale thanks to: @dorth.
@dorth please IMMEDIATELY change your password on Steem because you sent your private key in a memo that anyone can now use to access your account! I am going to show this in a post tomorrow to help assist with a feature request and am commenting here to give you time to do it before anyone hopefully notices.
Changing your password at https://steemit.com/@dorth/password will stop anyone from being able to use your private keys to sign into your account. Make sure on your new password to keep it backed up with something such as LastPass or another password manager or an offline backup because the original password will not work after changing it!
In the future make sure to never sent a memo that includes a private key in it! Hopefully Steemit will make a feature that blocks private keys in memos in a future update!
Hi @jerrybanfield, thanks for the heads up. I guess I used my "memo" key while making a transfer from my bittrex account. Never knew the memo was supposed to be that private. I thought it's the "active key" that i need to guide in order not to allow access to my account. However, I changed my password around 24 mins after u dropped this message. Thanks.