Yesterday I went to a lunch presentation given by an expert in animal abuse, discussing the approach to gathering evidence in a suspected animal abuse case and the importance of thorough attention to detail. Picture after picture of atrocities committed by human beings on animals flashed on the screen. Every single one of them bothered me, and they were hard to look at. I was handling it okay until one picture flashed on the screen and absolutely broke my heart. It was a black cat, adult, very reminiscent of two of my own little babies. Someone had taken this cat, this innocent little creature, and had crucified it on two pieces of wood. I hope that this cat had met its death before being crucified, and that someone had done this to the cat post-mortem, but I am afraid it probably was alive when someone nailed it to a cross. I cannot comprehend a human being that has the potential to commit an atrocity like this on another living thing. I understand that some people do not like cats, and that’s fine. They should avoid them and not get one. I personally am not a dog person. However, I would NEVER inflict pain in a malicious manner on a dog just because I’m not a dog person. What kind of person could not only see an animal suffering, but be so unaffected by it as to perpetrate inflicting this horror? This wasn’t even a crime of neglect, such as forgetting to feed the cat – this was willful, intentional infliction of pain and suffering. Someone took the time out of their day to take this cat, make a cross, and nail the cat to the cross. There’s even the slap in the face to religions in which the cross is a holy icon. I cannot even condone doing this as a protest of religion – no one’s religion should be insulted. But religious insults aside, my heart was broken at the sight of this cat. Was it someone’s pet? Did someone love that cat? Is someone missing that cat right now, wondering what happened? Did that cat curl up on someone’s feet? Did that cat taunt dogs outside the window? Or did it knock things off the table just because it was bored? Did it run around the house meowing randomly at 3 in the morning? Did it have a favorite brand of food and refuse all other brands? Animals are not people, and do not have the intellectual skills that we do. Does this make them worthy of our disdain – are they just tools to amuse us in whatever way we choose? They feel pain, and I believe they have the ability to process emotions to some extent. They remember. They fear. The life of even the smallest of creatures has value, if to no one else but itself. That cat may have been a stray, and may have mattered to no one on this planet, but it mattered to itself.
That cat matters to me. I came home and picked up all of my cats, and hugged them. I pressed my face into their fur, felt their rumbling purrs of happiness, and felt my heart break all over again. I hope that poor cat, and all of the others that share similar fate, were at some point in their tragic lives loved like mine are. I hope they knew at least that much human kindness before seeing the darkest side of humanity. Cool, soft fur slipped through my fingers, and happy cats wriggled in my arms to go get dinner and play in the sink. That cat matters. | 
