Cat parents? We hoomans are just mere caretakers. Butlers. Slaves.
this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2026
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My cat was born from a stray, and I took it upon myself to raise her. She acts like she doesn't remember what it was like to be outside for two years of her life, as she has completely adapted to her regal lifestyle with no interest in going back outside ever. She is convinced that water straight from the tap is better than water straight from the tap into her bowl. She also will drink from the puddles on the floor after a shower, because that is somehow also better than water in her bowl. She also scratches at doors she wants open. She also was mad at me for an entire day for the two or three drops of flea medication.
Before we got our kitten (2 years old) our older cat (8 years old) only had a handful of very similar meows. Sure, there would be tone so you could kinda guess what he wanted, but they were all variations of the same. The new kitten comes in, and she's a chatter box. She makes so many different sounds, you can always tell what mood she's in, what she's doing, and what she wants. It's lovely.
The problem with this is that she's started teaching the older cat new sounds, so on top of his normal sounds he'll occasionally make one that I've never heard him make before. And it's absolutely disorienting. He'll make a noise and look at me expectantly, and I will have absolutely no idea what he wants. He's always good to show me what he wants, but man must he think I'm an idiot now.
Only one of my cats is a chatterbox, but I have no idea what any of his meows mean. He looks somewhere, screams, looks somewhere else, screams again, looks at me, screams. He doesn't even differentiate at all, because he uses all of his different meows for the same things. I think he just likes to talk, because he's been like that since he was a kitten.
Yeah, but you train well.
Oh, sure. Cats, and dogs, too, can learn how to speak in their own sort of language like that. It’s simple, but effective sometimes.
For my cat, it’s mostly limited to:
- hello
- hey (to get my attention)
- I want something
- expressing happiness
- expressing unhappiness
- I am angry
- I am scared
From my last 2 dogs, one could let me know a number of specific things based on context. (Including, the spin that means: I need you to open this specific gate, or I'm just going to jump it, and not come home for a day.)
The other one just had I need something NOW, and then various emotions (and being hungry was an emotion, and he had it all the time lol).
Cats and dogs. All my pets over the years, I could decipher different wants and needs from sound or body language. They train us just as much as we train them.
Truth.
Cat parents
Your cat is a grown ass adult. You're a grown ass adult. You're not the parent of your cat. It's your pet, your friend, or your family member. But it's not your kid.
Calm your tits bruv.
My parents and I are all grown ass-adults.
All family members are members of the family.
I'm guessing your parents didn't adopt you as an adult. Nevertheless I'm sick of this pet parent thing .I have a human child and when we were recently visiting my wife's brother, who has 2 lovely cats, he couldn't stop comparing his cats with our kid. Like when we were talking about how our kid is like this or like that, he would always reply "yes I totally understand, my cat is the same way!". It's so obnoxious. Like I'm super happy you love your cat but it's really not the same! He even dared to say we had it easy because he and his girlfriend were both working full time while my wife currently does not work, so we must have an easier time caring for our newborn baby than they have caring for their two adult ass cats who sleep 16 hours a day! It's insane. I'm going insane! It's not the same!
This sounds like a conversation you should be having with your brother-in-law.
I am fully aware that my cats require far fewer resources than my stepsons, but that doesn't prevent me from counting them as a valuable part of the family unit.
Also, we adopted all of our cats as very young kittens.
I'm totally okay with counting them as part of the family as stated in my first comment. I had cats myself from 9 to 23. Thinking of getting cats again in the future. It's strictly the parent label that irks me the wrong way.
Is there a right way to be irked?
Why does that specific label bother you? What defines "acceptable" parenthood to you?
why do you care? genuine question. ask it of yourself and mull over what the answer says about you. if you can't come up with one, i recommend talking to a professional.
While I do recognize your resemblance to a feline blossom, that is not reason enough for you to be on this community.