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Awkwardness
Jul. 5th, 2017 07:25 pmWhen you spend a couple of years learning about cat behavior and welfare and how to care for them and other animals, what's good and what's bad and why not to anthropomorphize them, and decide it would be a fantastic idea to include all of that in an animal transformation fic you're planning to write...
...Only to realize that you're going to have to turn everything upside-down, because the transformed character's caretaker actually knows they're really human, thus making anthropomorphism appropriate.
(Sweet Maude, the disclaimers I'll have to include. "I am aware that having indoor only cats is seen as cruelty in at least parts of Europe (the UK definitely), but I do not actually endorse doing so!" "Yes, absolutely spay and neuter your pets when it is healthy to do so, because [laundry list of reasons compounded by indoor/outdoor not!cat]." "For a whole lot of reasons that Jackson Galaxy can tell you more about, a litter box is infinitely more appropriate than a toilet for a cat who is not actually a human being who has been temporarily transformed into a feline pet." Hell, I should probably start with a huge one at the top of the fic: "There's a lot of animal husbandry used in here that is anthropomorphic, and I do not recommend doing it with actual cats. The only reason I think it's appropriate here is because the cat in question actually is human normally, and his current caretaker is well aware of it. More details in the end notes." Something like that.)
(Yes I did spend half an hour at work the other day contemplating whether I should ask the internet about diets for cats that could conceivably also be eaten by a human without too much embarrassment, I should think that's obvious.)
...Only to realize that you're going to have to turn everything upside-down, because the transformed character's caretaker actually knows they're really human, thus making anthropomorphism appropriate.
(Sweet Maude, the disclaimers I'll have to include. "I am aware that having indoor only cats is seen as cruelty in at least parts of Europe (the UK definitely), but I do not actually endorse doing so!" "Yes, absolutely spay and neuter your pets when it is healthy to do so, because [laundry list of reasons compounded by indoor/outdoor not!cat]." "For a whole lot of reasons that Jackson Galaxy can tell you more about, a litter box is infinitely more appropriate than a toilet for a cat who is not actually a human being who has been temporarily transformed into a feline pet." Hell, I should probably start with a huge one at the top of the fic: "There's a lot of animal husbandry used in here that is anthropomorphic, and I do not recommend doing it with actual cats. The only reason I think it's appropriate here is because the cat in question actually is human normally, and his current caretaker is well aware of it. More details in the end notes." Something like that.)
(Yes I did spend half an hour at work the other day contemplating whether I should ask the internet about diets for cats that could conceivably also be eaten by a human without too much embarrassment, I should think that's obvious.)
