In 1183, a Chinese Poet Describes Being Domesticated by His Own Cats

January 29, 2023 3:25 PM

In 1183, a Chinese Poet Describes Being Domesticated by His Own Cats. In Korea cat owners aren't called cat owners: they're called goyangi jibsa, literally 'cat butlers.' Clearly the idea that felines have flipped the domestic-animal script, not serving humans but being served by humans, transcends cultures.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (17 comments total)

Cats may be the only animals that have domesticated us.
posted by sjswitzer at 3:37 PM on January 29, 2023 [5 favorites]

Lu You’s cat previously.
posted by zamboni at 3:59 PM on January 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

Cat Butler! Now that's a truly honourable position.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:07 PM on January 29, 2023 [10 favorites]

I'm down to Arthur Whaley for Chinese poetry and nothing on cats, drats, those rats chewing books. My rabbit did the same.

Wonderful post as is Zamboni' link from before. But I found something in the previous thread, to remember not to distract from this one.

"thousands of years from now, on an as-yet-undiscovered distant planet, someone will wake up to a pile of puke in their space boot and a tiny, furry face screaming for breakfast.

I'm waiting for ubiquitous, desktop genetic engineering and space habitats to give us cats with flying fox wings gliding around and dislodging the kitchen utensils velcroed to the wall. Hopefully the swarms of nanobots will take care of the floating blobs of puke.

Also, this is neat!
posted by eotvos at 10:09 AM on August 29, 2020"

Here's to the Butler's.🐈
posted by clavdivs at 4:28 PM on January 29, 2023 [13 favorites]

This Instagram account @chinesewhiskers of a Hong Kong based photographer depicts shop cats.

There's a recent-ish overview on the rising popularity of cats in China.
posted by spamandkimchi at 4:41 PM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

I felt so bad about my cat not having a warm laptop to sleep on, I bought a heating pad. Until it broke, my cat would curl up each night on top of my always-running Dell Precision laptop. My new laptop is much slimmer and actually goes into suspend mode when I close the lid. It doesn't get as warm as the old one, at least not warm enough for a cat to enjoy. So I got a (independent laboratory approved) 4 watt always-on pet bed heating pad to put next to my new laptop. It doesn't get as warm as the old laptop either, but it's hopefully better than nothing.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:46 PM on January 29, 2023 [6 favorites]

I thought a butler manages the household staff. As my cats employ no other staff, I think of myself more of a cat valet
posted by aubilenon at 4:48 PM on January 29, 2023 [17 favorites]

Whether they got a help from their little friends isn’t exactly clear for Korea:

In Korea, the reported seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in humans varies among different studies, ranging from 0.9% to 17.0% [36–42]. This trend suggests that the seroprevalence of human toxoplasmosis is increasing in Korea, as is the case in the USA [30], where there is a high amount of livestock consumption. In particular, the prevalence of infection in immunodeficiency diseases such as HIV/AIDS patients [43], pregnant women [44], and the elderly [45] increases the necessity of fundamental prevention in animals against toxoplasma, including cats and dogs.

But for comparison, the US rate is about 11%.
posted by jamjam at 4:58 PM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

These poems are great. I mostly feel a great deal of affection towards our masters, but this is sorely tested when I'm woken at 2am by sandpaper being applied to my face.
posted by Slothrup at 5:14 PM on January 29, 2023 [5 favorites]

The current popular slang for cat owners in China is "铲屎官", official-in-charge-of-the-litter-scoop.
posted by of strange foe at 6:03 PM on January 29, 2023 [12 favorites]

Brings to mind the joke "Dogs have owners. Cats have staff."
posted by zardoz at 6:28 PM on January 29, 2023 [5 favorites]

Perhaps the Cat-Butlerian Jihad will be when humans overthrow their furry masters.

Nah. Never happen.
posted by bryon at 7:54 PM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

The flabdablet household's cats have neither owners nor staff; they have housemates. We all do a moderately good job of respecting each other's boundaries and on the whole the arrangement is beneficial for everyone.
posted by flabdablet at 7:57 PM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

In the nudibranch compound we have comrades or companions. Ain't nobody owning anybody.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:19 PM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

A couple of weeks ago I was out feeding my little colony of feral cats when I spotted a black and white cat I'd never seen before on top of a garbage can across the street. I made sure he got food that morning, and came to realize over the next few days that he wasn't feral, he was a long-time stray. His fur was raggedy, his tail all scrungly, he was skinny and desperate but incredibly friendly and trusting. I named him Flurb.

I spent a couple of weeks working to build up his trust in me, and about a week ago he finally wandered inside, just before a string of freezing nights hit us. I made sure he had soft, warm places to sleep, a constant supply of dry kibble and two meals a day of wet food, a nice litterbox, toys, scratching posts, and so on. He settled in, has started gaining weight, and has started purring, which is lovely.

This morning Flurb spent an hour and a half complaining and freaking out because he just had dry kibble, and it wasn't time for the wet food yet.
posted by MrVisible at 6:51 AM on January 30, 2023 [18 favorites]

We think of ourselves as helper monkeys to the cats here.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:39 AM on January 30, 2023

"Food ape" is the pejorative term...
posted by jim in austin at 12:54 PM on January 30, 2023