I Dress My Pets in Tutus and Kiss Them on the Mouth

Feeling like I should check in, though there is not much to say.

I'm quietly freaking out about my new job tomorrow--not in a bad way, just in the way that you do when things are new and different and you are likely to make mistakes.

My dogs killed a kitten this weekend. I'm really messed up about it. They've had problems with aggression toward cats since I used to commute to Greensboro every weekend and they had to board at their vet. Apparently there was a vet cat there that tormented them in their cages. My vet mentioned it to me once and told me that she did not suggest my ever getting a cat because of it. Since then, the only cats they ever see are the feral ones in our neighborhood who are foolish enough to come into the yard. In November we had an incident with a kitten and since then we haven't seen any cats in the yard. I've looked into ways of keeping the strays out, but I haven't found any that aren't inhumane or wouldn't affect my dogs as well. The humane society here makes it incredibly difficult to trap the cats and since it was working out, I didn't think about it any more. But yesterday they got a very tiny one. I got there in time and there were no bite marks on it; I think it died of fear. I'm very sad.

Several years ago, Gonzo was attacked by a pit bull. I was so angry at the dog and the owner and what I perceived to be just senseless aggression. But I guess this is the same. I know that dogs, domesticated or not, are animals and that we choose to keep them despite their instincts. I know I am probably guilty of anthropomorphising the dogs in the extreme, but I just can't understand why they would do this. I mean, its not as if they are competing for a food source, or like cats ARE a food source to them. There's no perceived danger, so why attack (or terrify)?

Some time early this year, there was an interview with Tommy Lee Jones in the New Yorker in which he said something like, "I respect animals. I don't dress them in tutus and kiss them on the mouth." Um, I totally dress my pets in tutus and kiss them on the mouth. So I guess that's why it's hard for me to understand why they are not and can never be my small and furry children, and are instead animals, sometimes ruthless ones.