Six months ago I was made rich with an orphaned kitty! Boca.

His mom abandoned him about 2 or 3 weeks after birth, which is when I started bottle-feeding him.

I think that made our bond especially strong. I work standing up a lot (writing at the kitchen counter), and he gravitated to curling up on my feet.

This was Boca back then, around January 2018:

And this is him now, June 2018:

I have loved cats all my life, and even feel feline, myself!
But all the previous cat-companions I rescued were adult.

This is my first kitten experience, and it means I finally had to face the hard, life-style decisions that must be made when different species live together.

An ugly truth about domestication.

Domus (latin) means to belong to the house.

To domesticate is "to adapt (an animal or plant) to life in intimate association with, and to the advantage of humans."

We domesticate fruits to taste sweeter, and look prettier.

We domesticate pets to behave more like pillows, and less like animals.

We've even domesticated ourselves to the point of preferring artificially-constructed environments (like shopping centers + office buildings) over natural ones (like forests and mountains).

The dominant world-view places humans at the top of the life-cycle and food-chain.

Some humans even feel superior to groups of other humans (!!!), so it's no surprise that the rest of life is mostly viewed as helpers + commodities.

🐈 When people MEAN "spayed" or "neutered," they SAY "fixed." 🐱

A logical follow-up consideration to that is:
"Fixed. Did they arrive broken?"

That 5-letter word -- fixed -- implies it is a malfunction for an animal to hunt, mate, and mark their territory.

But that is precisely what healthy, functioning felines + canines do!

Do you see how our used language tricks our minds into calling their innate and perfect behavior, broken?

It sterilizes the mind of any guilt that might creep in for altering the nature of another living being sheerly for our pleasure and preference.

I made that tough decision to domesticate Boca, and I was brutally honest with myself and him about what was actually going down...

😻 I want him to "belong to the house." 🏡

Let's drop the euphemisms. Let's use real, actual, grown-up terms so that our decisions can be rooted in actuality.

Thinking about WHY we do WHAT we do causes fatigue + turmoil...
...but also builds mind-muscles, and morals.

Thinking is a great practice,
and we are almost always encouraged to do less of it.

Silly, world.

Neuter, essentially, means 'neither.'
When a male is castrated, he becomes neither. Or, either.
But he's no longer fully male.

It is tough for me to give full account for removing the testicles of a young cat I love enough, to want to share my home (and even bed) with.

"I care for you so much, I am having your reproductive organs surgically removed tomorrow afternoon."

Ick.

The truth at the bottom of it all is that, yes, I do desire a home + furnishings that will not be hunted, and territorially marked/sprayed by him.

And even if I was capable (which I am not) of turning him free to the streets, there is still the responsibility of not adding to an already too-high feral population.

So regardless of his whereabouts, sterilization seems the most ethical thing to do.

These are some of the considerations that came to my mind and heart as I thought through the fate-making decision of body parts that don't belong to me.

If you are ever entrusted with the fate-making decision of a male infant's penis, please consider ALL the facts about secular circumcision.

Rippling consequences come with every surgical decision we make. And because of Life's speed and volume, people rarely feel they have adequate time + space to think through things.

If our life is so crazed that we can't afford the time or mental bandwidth to research
and deeply consider what it actually means to remove the foreskin
of an intact penis... how can there be time or bandwidth to care for the rest of him?

🌻 💐 🌷

I much prefer uplifting posts!

Something to add cheer, beauty, or intrigue to your day...

...but this mundane process, of deciding to get my beloved pet neutered,
strongly put on my mind every newborn boy who comes into the world
with a nerve-filled, protective sheathe keeping his glans
as the lubricated, internal organ it was intended to be.

And, sheerly because of misinformation, loving parents opt to have their son mutilated.

I'm sorry for the harshness of that word, but it is precise.

The ACT should be found revolting, moreso than my use of a word that rightly DESCRIBES it.

To mutilate is "to inflict a violent and disfiguring injury," and that is exactly what circumcision is, and does:

This is a highly charged topic, so I made a point to choose a demonstrative video that is clinical and neutral. It also shows all three 'options.' If you find the idea of even just watching a circumcision too difficult, that warrants a pause to answer: "How could I inflict on my son, a procedure I cannot even watch?"

At the very least, it deserves a deeper read.

Newborn male circumcision is the most common surgical procedure performed in the U.S. It's a common misconception that there are tangible health benefits to male circumcision, but the truth is no medical society in the world recommends it.

A l s o . R e c e n t l y . P u b l i s h e d .

💠 Gently down a stream.

💠 Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary | Belize Study Abroad 🐒

💠 Deeper levels, and the ongoing assault against them.