Theos-Talk Archives (November 1995 Message tl00193)

Ann:

>You haven't lived with many cats. One cat we owned used to
>wake my husband up by biting his nose.

It wouldn't work with me. Cats are banned from the house because
I'm allergic to them. It's not that I don't like them ... They
certainly do have intelligence of their own. If you decide to
move or give them away their lives are affected. They aren't
on an equal basis with you although they are sentient members
of your household.

>Also there is a certain amount of maintenance and service to a
>properly kept pet. Dogs return the favor by keeping watch and
>cats return the favor by ridding your place of rodents.

Yes they can provide useful functions. A dog is considered
the best burglar alarm and costs almost nothing.

>>But how does the nieghborhood compare
>>to a completely wild setting without human artifacts?

>Depends on the animal. Lions and tigers definitely belong in
>the wild but domesticated animals need to live in harmony
>with people.

This is the status quo. They are accustomed to being
domestic. The question of whether this is good for them in
the long one remains unanswered. I'd say that over time the domestic
animal population will die out but that may take millions
of years to happen. In the meanwhile we'd don't do them any
substantial harm.

>The native habitat of the domestic cat is Africa where it is
>warm. In Chicago many freeze to death in our cold winters.

Unless we provide the African animals with the cold of a
nuclear winter and set ourselves back a few hunderd thousand
years in our human evolution. <frown>

>Right now mine are huddled up against the heating vent
>since it was 20 degrees and snowing this morning.

They're nice to have around. If I wasn't allergic to them
I might have had one or two myself. But liking them and
wanting them around don't make the domestic life best for
them.

>I think the ideal environment for the domestic pet is a
>farm with lots of room to roam without getting knocked
>off by a car and a nice comfy home in the barn or house.

That would be a nice comfort zone for them but does not
provide the diversity and challenge that an all-natural
setting would provide to them. We might call the natural
setting "in the wild" but it's really a setting that the
animals themselves are fashioning.

Some animals have a miserable life on the farm. Consider
the cows that live their lives in stalls in order to
provide us with milk. Or the chickens that live an
overcrowded cage life before making their way to slaughter
and the marketplace. They certainly would have a different
view of contact with humanity that cats or dogs.

>The urban setting isn't the best but it is becoming
>more and more the norm. Farms are on the wane as
>opposed to what they must have been in Purucker's day.

And so it the "wild" portions of nature being developed
and subject to human cultivation. The natural habitat of
animals is rapidly declining on our earth Globe D.

>>Sad. Hopefully he'll find rebirth in a better environment
>>perhaps one day on Globe E with the rest of the animal lifewave.

>Maybe he wanted to have one wild Scorpion life before he became a
>home-loving tabby.. :-

He may be learning some tricks useful in a human home but
that won't do him much good when he's reborn later into the
wild.

>>[Blatavsky says:]
>>"People who bestow great affection upon animal pets are ensouling
>>them to a certain extent and such animal Souls progress very
>>rapidly;

This part we can agree on but may disagree on if it is
good and helpful to the animals.

>>in return such persons get back the animal vitality and magnetism.

This is found in magic and the occult arts. That vitality and
magnetism can be used to make things happen.

>>It is however against Nature thus to accentuate animal
>>evolution and on the whole is bad."

>Sorry. I just can't buy this.

On this last point we don't have to agree. In the short run of
a few lifetimes with pets it won't make much difference one way
or the other. And in the long run animals will stop being reborn
into circumstances that are non-productive to their long-run
evolution.

>>When we shift our attention away from animals and consider plants
>>there does not seem to be any prohibition against keeping house
>>plants.

>Don't have any. My cats destroyed them all. :-

How about elementals. They taste better than mice! <grin>

-- Eldon