Strange American Things.

[Leo]

The American thing of keeping cats indoors all the time and thinking that letting a cat roam freely outdoors like basically everyone else in the world does is tantamount animal abuse. That's strange.

we've adopted cats twice, and both times part of the agreement stipulated we could only keep them indoors and never let them out. I think it depends where you live, a crowded urban environment like ours is not ideal for a cat. they contend that even suburban and rural areas can be an issue, where cats can pick up diseases (since they'll eat any damn thing that's laying around or catchable), and small cats can be prayed upon by dogs, hawks and other large birds.

 

[borzoi]

I do think it's weird and I'm conflicted about it. I have two cats that I found as tiny kittens and they've been indoors since they were a few weeks old. I think I give them a good life -- I play with them until they're worn out every day, they chase each other around, sleep a lot, watch tv with me, and hopefully they'll live til they're 15 or 20. I live in a big city so it's just concrete around my apartment, not really a garden I could let them out in or anything. But often I can't help but think that given the choice they would choose outside.

On the other hand coyotes are everywhere in america and I know multiple cats who have ended up as coyote food even in big cities. And if it wasn't for me they would probably have been squished by a truck at the gas station I found them at. So idk.

 

[borzoi]

In general though I think a lot of people neglect their pets' well-being. Tons of dogs in my neighborhood just sitting in front yards barking all day, lots of cats who I'm sure are bored and understimulated.

 

[droid]

it pains me to say it, but the Americans are right about this (though it is very common in Europe as well) Cats devastate ecosystems. Free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals in the US alone annually. Indoors is the best option and most cats live very healthy and happy lives without setting a foot outdoors.

The Moral Cost of Cats

A bird-loving scientist calls for an end to outdoor cats "once and for all"

www.smithsonianmag.com

 

[Mr. Tea]

The American thing of keeping cats indoors all the time and thinking that letting a cat roam freely outdoors like basically everyone else in the world does is tantamount animal abuse. That's strange.

It's not cat abuse, but it is (or is likely to be) blackbird/bluetit/mouse/frog/newt abuse.

Edit: oh, well what droid said, basically.

My cats go through phases and tend to kill a handful of things a year, but they're not the apex predators they'd probably like to be, thankfully.

 

[WashYourHands]

had to decapitate a baby squirrel after a cat partially ripped it up, bad kitty, cunt still lopes in knowing there’s a terrier indoors

covered all the boundary walls in glass shards and claymores set to cat weight

 

[Clinamenic]

You had to decapitate a squirrel, because it was injured?

 

[Clinamenic]

Sounds instead like you were simply looking for an excuse to dismember an animal. Totally fine to admit it, everyone feels these things. Right?

 

[droid]

Ive had to crush the skulls of baby starlings after they were mauled. Also failed to nurse some back to health. Spent a weekend feeding the damn things with an eyedropper and then the vet more or less laughed in my face and disposed of them.

 

[WashYourHands]

Sounds instead like you were simply looking for an excuse to dismember an animal. Totally fine to admit it, everyone feels these things. Right?

the cat got enough of its neck and, as one man of the world speaking to another, you realise rapid the quickest way to end its pain was one swift chop with the nearest tool at hand

unlike most people on perfidious Albion I legally own a shotgun and discharging it to dispatch a squirrel might’ve raised more than a few polis eyebrows, although as an American your possible disappointment that I didn’t might be culturally relevant

 

[blissblogger]

Can't remember if I contributed these before, can't be arsed to look, 1 of 2

No electric kettles. Almost unheard of. You have to cook your kettle on the hob, like you were some cowboy makin coffee on an open fire.

 

[blissblogger]

Can't remember if I contributed these before, can't be arsed to look, 2 of 2

Butter comes in quarters, each wrapped in greaseproof paper. It'll be a normal size and shape packet, but when you open it , out slip these four rectangular portions of butter. Each one will have markings along the side, for ease of cutting off a designated amount for baking or other culinary purpose.

You can come across a normal UK style amount of butter in one pack, but it's usually a fancy butter. Regular common or garden butter comes in these square-cylinders.

They are very fiddly to use (as an expat Brit) and you get butter all over your fingers and then because the surface area of wrapping is increased by huge amount, there's lot of manky left-over bits you don't fancy scraping up. You end up throwing out about 1/5 of the butter, along with all that extraneous packaging.

 

[blissblogger]

Neither of those exactly "strange", but commonplace differences that are subtly disorienting and which I've never got used to, in 30-plus years of living here on and off - and increasingly on

 

[borzoi]

I think electric kettles are more common than they used to be, coinciding with fancier coffee and better brewing methods. My parents don't have one but I and probably most of my friends do.

 

[Clinamenic]

the cat got enough of its neck and, as one man of the world speaking to another, you realise rapid the quickest way to end its pain was one swift chop with the nearest tool at hand

unlike most people on perfidious Albion I legally own a shotgun and discharging it to dispatch a squirrel might’ve raised more than a few polis eyebrows, although as an American your possible disappointment that I didn’t might be culturally relevant

A merciful butcher! As an American I'm just disappointed you didn't cook up some catkill stew.

 

[Leo]

Can't remember if I contributed these before, can't be arsed to look, 1 of 2

No electric kettles. Almost unheard of. You have to cook your kettle on the hob, like you were some cowboy makin coffee on an open fire.

That's very weird, because my English wife absolutely refuses to use an electric kettle. She drinks tea all day and will only make it with water that's boiled in a traditional kettle (and as our neighbors can attest, the whistle must blow loudly as well). I'm in favor of the electric, in that we wouldn't heat up the kitchen in the summer with the stove top flame. but she wouldn't touch one with a barge pole.

 

[IdleRich]

we've adopted cats twice, and both times part of the agreement stipulated we could only keep them indoors and never let them out. I think it depends where you live, a crowded urban environment like ours is not ideal for a cat. they contend that even suburban and rural areas can be an issue, where cats can pick up diseases (since they'll eat any damn thing that's laying around or catchable), and small cats can be prayed upon by dogs, hawks and other large birds.

I have a cat or two and as I live on the top floor they never go out except on the balcony. If I ever try and take them outside (except in their travel basket) they go batshit mental and try to fight their way back into the flat.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Can't remember if I contributed these before, can't be arsed to look, 1 of 2

No electric kettles. Almost unheard of. You have to cook your kettle on the hob, like you were some cowboy makin coffee on an open fire.

Don't electric kettles take much longer to boil a given amount of water over there, due to the truly pathetic 110 V mains supply?

 

[Leo]

Don't electric kettles take much longer to boil a given amount of water over there, due to the truly pathetic 110 V mains supply?

I've found they boil water faster than traditional kettles, although obviously it depends on how much water you have in it, how many cups you're making.

 

[shakahislop]

one distinctive ambient feature of the middle east (or at least the bits of it i've been to) is that there's cats wandering about everywhere. on my way to work in morocco down some backstreets there are always a few cats hanging about looking through bins and every now and then there are like twenty of them taking over a corner. i had no idea cats spend time together in groups, i knew wild dogs do that, but not cats. maybe there are so many cats because of the general islamic-world distaste for dogs