Does this video make you wish you had a troubled cat?

The so-called French needs its own French subtitles.

Le vrai Chat Noir

Check out your local shelter for an equally broody, needy and shaggy “chat noir.”

@gailcalled I wish I could. I love cats unfortunately my spouse and daughter are severely allergic. I just loved how they seemed to capture the cat at the right times. It turned his head to look at the camera and he looked disgusted.
Thanks for the link.

Somebody probably plied him with fresh salmon and Russian caviar until he was doped up on serotonin.

I rent Milo out if you are willing to pay for the gas for his Lear jet. Just say the word.

Ha! Great video. I’m in love with him, but my lady cat, Spoony, is old and set in her ways. No other cats allowed in these quarters. My wife and I are her humans, and no other feline dare challenge her hegemony.

No, but here’s to Henri’s memetic debut as Melancholy Cat!
It only seems natural,somehow, that a cat would be self-pitying.

I think that video was a million times better just because it was in another language lol.

@Pandora I’m severely allergic to cats but recently a stray came up to our house that was really sickly and skinny. I’ve been nursing it back to health but my allergies have since ive been taking care of it decreased dramatically. I think after a couple more weeks his fur wont bother me at all.

@uberbatman: True but it is hard to say exactly what other language it was in.

Oh Geez! More anthropomorphization. Sometimes it scares me the way pet owners think about their pets. They are real animals with needs of their own that have little to do with the scripts we imagine they might be thinking.

I think we like pets because they make us imagine their interior lives, at least in part. They are also good to hug and hold and give love to. But I think it is important to also recognize their animal natures and that our delusions about what they might be thinking are most likely just that: delusions—artistic thought they may be.

Cringes as he waits for Milo’s response.

@wundayatta I just think people like to make up stories about their pets lives because otherwise the poor things can look so bored. Plus it’s just fun to imagine. We do it with animals of all types, pet or wild and even with babies. Its just human nature to wonder what goes through their heads.

@Pandora I totally agree with you. I don’t think it’s human as in genetic. I think it’s cultural. An affectation. A trend. A fad. It’s important to a lot of people and probably really helps many people in a mental health way.

But I think it is also potentially dangerous. If you watch shows like the dog whisperer and others of that ilk, you’ll see trainers trying to get people away from their anthroporphized view of animals and to help them understand real animal psychology so they can treat their pets better. Dogs should not be the owner of the human. They can end up with bad care that way. They can end up hurting other animals and people that way.

So while I understand why people treat pets like babies and children, I don’t think it is a good thing. I don’t think it is helpful for humans to imagine what goes on inside animals’ heads. They think like humans, not animals, and get it badly wrong. To understand an animal, you have to observe the animal without letting any of your human preconceptions get in the way. This is a nearly impossible task since most people have no clue how to see through the eyes of anyone else, much less a creature from another species.

Humans have evolved to be empathetic, I think, but that doesn’t mean we are that good at it. And when we try to do it and fail with animals, a lot of animals get hurt. It’s better not to even try, than to get it badly wrong. It is our nature to try to imagine what goes on in our pets’ heads, but it is also our nature to be scientific, and this is a case where it is better to be scientific than indulge our fantasies.