Americans Are a Bunch of Feral Cats

Feral cats — they’re everywhere.

They are animals who were perhaps born in the wild, or abandoned. They are used to being kicked, starved, chased.

They are used to sleeping with one eye open for danger.

The know that the law of the jungle is also the law of the junkyards, the alleyways and the garbage cans.

The males fight. Constantly. A male feral cat after a few years is permanently scarred and maimed.

When a female is in heat, the male cats attack, pile on, and she is forced to deal with male after male after male who feel they MUST mate with her, whether she likes it or not. Invariably, she has kittens — sometimes two or three litters a year.

The kittens often don’t reach maturity, being attacked by other animals as prey.

And if they do, the cycle is repeated.

Sometimes, if a feral cat is taken in by a rescue group, they can be tamed down to understand that people are kind. That they will always have food and shelter. That they will not get kicked, but given compassionate care and touch.

But this is a rare kindness. More often, a feral will never trust a human. They are permanently emotionally crippled.

Now…I want you to look at your fellow Americans.

The ones who are hopeless.

The ones who feel hard done by.

The ones who steal because they have been stolen from forever.

The ones who, no matter how hard they work or how many jobs they hold, are never sure about food, about shelter, about health care.

The ones who know they will never get a fair shake.

The ones who think it is their right to take any female, any age, for sex. And they beat her if she refuses — or worse.

The children mothers are forced to bear even though they know they cannot raise them with any semblance of safety or sufficiency.

And the cycle is repeated.

The guns, the screaming hate, those are the human’s teeth and claws, hisses and yowls.

Now do you understand why this country is full of rage, despair, hatred, violence?

We are no better than feral cats.

The system has to change from the top.

Because the corporate oligarchs, the climate deniers, the Christofascists and politicians and one percenters are like the people who kick animals out, who abandon them, and never give them a second thought.

And then they wonder why the cats will attack them if they dare walk outside their gardens.