Saturday, July 18, 2009

Why do humans let off these terrible fireworks without warning?


Dear George,
Throughout my four years of life, I have always been a cat noted as much for my steely feline nerves as well as my luxurious coat and whiskers. Lately, however, my nerves have been severely shaken by the relentless human tendency toward the prosecution of ridiculous, noisy, unpleasant "customs." I speak of the American habit of setting light to these foul-smelling and explosive "firecracker" contraptions all night long beginning on what is apparently some sort of human date of note, earlier this month, and continuing throughout the warm summer months. The noise is deafening, and the smell worse. My human has served me effectively during such things as violent thunderstorms, and I have trained her to provide me with brushing and a steady stream of tuna-flavored Pounce during such natural calamities; however, fireworks "displays" are a thousand times worse.
I hope that you will not judge me too harshly when I confess, feline to feline, that I apparently have some sort of weakness in the face of such events. Quite honestly, I have been logging a lot of time under the bed, in closets, and up draperies, and frankly, shaking. I can't stand the noise! My nerves are just about shot. My human, good soul, wishes to help. Aside from laying in a larger-than-usual supply of Pounce, how should I instruct her to serve me during these firework catastrophes in a manner which will make the situation more agreeable to me? (Incidentally, in her blockheaded human fashion, she does not appear to be unnerved by the explosions, per se, but rather by my reaction. I fear that causing her distress in this way will cause her performance in my service to suffer. It's hard enough to get good help these days, and I wish to retain her in my employment as long as possible.)

Anxiously, Puss-Puss.
P.S. Here I am in my favorite window. As you can see, I am quite calm, and serenely watching the juicy little birds hop about on the lawn.

Dear Puss-Puss,
You are right to be frightened. Humans are probably the most inconsiderate and destructive species in the world. They rarely consider our comfort - unless we train them to do so. But your human, trained by you, did not set off these fireworks. It must have been neighbouring humans who don't have cats and don't think of feline welfare. Or canine welfare, come to that. Some dogs are utterly terrified by these explosive noises
That said, your human obviously failed to foresee this significant date which is (I can reveal) July 4. Other dates are Fireworks Day in the UK, November 5 and New Year's Eve, December 31.
Why these particular dates I have no idea. It's just part of the time-obsessed human way of life - special days in the year, strange intermittent two-day periods called 'weekends', so called 'holidays' when they desert us for several days. Clocks that tick, clocks that don't, computers that show time mouse tracks, alarm bells, cries of "You'll be late". They don't know how to settle to a sensible day-night routine based on light, a routine used by every other species that lives above ground. They live in fear of the future. They can't live just in the day like the rest of us do whether we are cats, birds or lilies of the field.
But I digress. If your human know in advance that fireworks are going off, the week before she could install a Feliway diffuser, which exudes a calming feline scent, or get a Feliway spray and spray your preferred room with it about ten minutes before the fireworks start. But if she doesn't know they are coming, its more difficult.
Most importantly, she must shut the cat flap so that you can't run out in fear and get lost. During Halloween or Fireworks day, there's the possiblity of feral humans catching you and throwing you in bonfires or hurling fireworks at you. She must keep you indoors from twilight onwards and give you somewhere to hide.
Keep your courage up. It's only a few days a year.
George.
PS. Keep away from cat lovers in the US who catch up black cats and hand them into animal shelters before Halloween. They have the best of motives but seven out of ten cats so handed in are euthanased. Only no-kill shelters can offer real safety.


9 comments:

  1. Poor Puss Puss. It's just as bad in the UK. We have fireworks going off in our village from the beginning of November right through until just after New Year. In general humans are so selfish they don't think one jot about the distress their antics cause. All they care about is instant gratification and showing off. Big fireworks give them a cheap thrill, at the expense of animal well being. We know of several elderly humans who are very upset by fireworks too.

    Feliway does help, and if your ape can be calm too, then that's a big help.

    Whicky Wuudler

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  2. First, our momma would yike us to tell you dat she isn't one of those 'beans who makes those loud noises outside.

    Second, we really don't care 'bout da noise, but you should see our doggy bro-fur, Scout. He's a mess an' momma has to baby him yike he was a little puppy to make him feelz betterz.

    We agree...no more big BOOMS.

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  3. Those big boomies are just awful. What more can I say?

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  4. We have them quite "equally distributed" over the year in Canada:-) They start in May with Victoria's Day, then 1st of July (Canada Day)and so on until New Year.
    I'm don't care too much about them, unless they are really big booms-booms, but my sister Cayenne hates them. So do our humans. They are really upset and can't understand why their fellows humans chose this type of entertainment.
    As for me....I don't understand why don't they open a bottle of bubble (champagne) instead and have both the boom and the trill :-)
    Fluffy

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  5. Ah! I hate fireworks as I hate any loud noise. I'm really scared and hide all night. I never tried Feliway (where do you get it?) I tried Rescue Remedies (Bach essence flower) and a really good catnip. We are not allowed to go outside on these days but even so, I'm scarred. I heard a lot of cats get lost as they try to run and hide away from these stupid booms. I remember few years ago when my mom helped find a lost cat after Canada Day. That's just terrible.
    I wish humans progress towards "civilization"
    Cayenne

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  6. SebastianJuly 23, 2009

    I always wonder why humans find circus or fireworks entertaining.
    Whicky Wuudler is right: poor apes!
    Yak!
    Sebastian

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  7. Sir WinstonJuly 23, 2009

    I have to give credit to my housekeepers for taking me to the cottage (on fireworks days) to avoid any "disturbance" in my aristocratic routine!
    Hm! As a reward....may be I should allow my male housekeeper sleep in my king size bed twice a week!
    I have to think about this!
    Sir Winston

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  8. That's plain stupid! Even the apes would be scared of the booms.
    Guess....humans have a big empty space between their ears.....and may be the fireworks give them an illusion of "something" in there.
    Tom

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  9. Fortunately, I only have to endure fireworks twice a year in my area, New Years and 4th of July (for you Brits Independence Day). Unfortunately, we are close to two big fireworks events and it's just terrible. My humans try to console me, but it doesn't help. So, I just hide under the bed until all the noise stops.

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Help for cats whose humans show behaviour problems.

This blog is devoted to the study of human behaviour. We cats, who live with this sometimes unpredictable and always feeble minded species, can benefit from seeing their behaviour in its proper scientific context. The study of feline dilemmas, training problems, and difficulties with humans, can only benefit all of us. All of us train our humans - to buy the right food, for instance, but many of us do not have knowledge of how to improve our training methods. The human species is obviously not as intelligent as the cat, but nevertheless can learn quite a lot - if properly managed. Topics of interest include the use of claw and order, purring as a human reward, rubbing your human up the right way, when to bite, spraying as a method of making our wishes known, ignoring the human, human harassment, human inattention and sheer human stupidity. I welcome your questions. Photos can be sent via my secretary's website, www.celiahaddon.com This blog has been chosen as one of the top 50 feline blogs by Online VetTechprogramms.org