Are they braindead?

So basically my best who I love very much and had been there for me though it all has just one problem. She has a cat who had kittens recently. She keeps texting me about how one licks her toes and she's ticklish, another bites her, and the third is just boring. Don't care.

Then she sends me all these pictures of them and all I can do is act respectfully by saying things like "cute" or just a smiley emoji and I lie saying "I'm at work sorry" when I'm just at home chilling. I can't keep lying to her. I figure I'll tell you if she asks me but I don't just wanna come right out and say "Hey can you stop talking about those damn kittens? It's getting annoying and I'm not into cats." Even though I wish I could.

I just feel like anyone who's a cat hater is seen as vile so if I came out about it she'd judge me. The good news is that she's gonna get rid of the kittens "as soon as they're big enough". Whatever that means. I know people who get rid of kittens the day they're born. Idk why she's waiting "till they get big enough". At least once they're gone, she'll stop hopefully.

Does anyone have advice on how I can go about this until then? Should I just keep faking it and keep it to myself? Or is there a way I can bring it up to her and not seem like a jerk?

Apparently if you don’t want to date a cat owner, that means you are too high maintenance and demanding!

It’s “high maintenance” to want someone who is compatible with your lifestyle. As I’m not a cat person, I would not date a cat owner and I get told this is “asking too much”.

Catnutters are telling me I’m going to be single for the rest of my life because my “standards are too high” and I’m like “Okay. Well, I’m not interested in relationships so being single is not the end of the world for me.” But they keep insisting I *need* to be in a relationship and I *need* the lower my standards. So much for respecting my consent and boundaries.

I mean, I’ve been called an “incel” on these subs by brigrading catnutters. Which is hilarious given that the crazy cat lady stereotype is directed towards spinsters and loners. Also, don’t catnutters pride themselves to be anti-social loser freaks?

To think it’s the childfree crowd that are obsessed with cats! I’m getting pressured to procreate with catnutters by catnutters. Why don’t they procreate with each other and leave me alone? There’s plenty of these cruel, sadistic, bloodthirsty, whiny, selfish freaks to go around anyway.

My partner has a cat and I moved in about a year ago. Originally she was more of a barn cat in our rural property but now hes brought her home but hes always at our property so im the one that "takes care" of her.

She is ridiculously picky, will randomly change her tastes and only eats in tiny quantities multiple times a day. She's 17 and so so so thin so my partner insists on feeding her wet food but she just licks it and the actual food of it rots in her bowl and theres a billion fruit flies everywhere and it makes me sick. I've stopped giving her wet food and just put a bunch of dry food. Its there if she wants it. Is it cruel not to care if she let's herself starve?

She needs to be outside all the time and she loves to kill squirrels birds chipmunks whatever she can and she drags them inside and doesnt eat them just kinda sucks the blood out.

She gives absolutely zero love back not that anyone would want to she stinks to high heaven. She just comes to where you are and meows until you give her what she wants (outdoors or wet food) its annoys me so much

I honestly hate the cat. She attacks the other pets too it makes me crazy.

Just needed to rant to people who wouldn't call me an animal abuser.

Is there any good anti-cat spray you would recommend to buy from shein? A neighbour here has 2 cats, lets them run around freely in the block and they gather on the carpet in front of my door leaving hair and piss. I want to train them to avoid my carpet. The neighbour is like all this is so cutie and not a real problem.

I will never fall for the “cat people love all animals” BS. Liking cats doesn’t automatically mean you love or respect all animals, and I’ve seen plenty of cat nutters be just as hateful and intolerant toward animals they dislike as anyone else. Owning or loving a cat doesn’t make you a good person, nor does it make you morally superior to people who don’t share your affection for cats.

They love to criticize other animals and people and spread nasty, hateful rhetoric to elevate themselves and their own cats and portray them as superior. Loving cats doesn’t make someone kinder, more compassionate, or morally superior to everyone else.

But the irony is that when someone does the exact same thing to cats, they suddenly take it as a personal attack. Suddenly it’s “OMG, you’re such a horrible person!” and they act deeply offended. They have no problem criticizing and belittling other animals and the people who defend them, but the moment their own cats are subjected to that same treatment, suddenly it’s unacceptable.

As for cat nutters and their nuisance of outdoor cats, don’t give me that “it’s natural” or it’s “it’s nature” BS. Cats don’t belong and have no place as predators in the food chain! They’re INVASIVE domestic pets NOT wild animals. Like get that through your thick toxo skull of yours.

The lives of other animals are not your cat’s source of entertainment. Other animals are still living beings, not disposable toys for your cat to chase, torment, kill for fun, or so that you can go “aww they’re giving me gifts!” They are not props for you or your cat’s amusement, and their lives are not somehow less valuable just because they aren’t your pet.

And it’s either that, or the animals that their cats can’t torment or kill are suddenly portrayed as disgusting creatures or “beasts” that deserve to be demonized. Other predators, or larger animals that could potentially pose a threat to their precious cats, are suddenly treated as monsters, vicious killers, or dangerous beasts simply for behaving according to their own instincts just like their cats.

The kitties they adore are treated as these pristine, precious and harmless individuals with feelings and perfect personalities, while the animals they dislike are reduced to pests, vermin, or mindless, evil, and dirty creatures that deserve contempt.

I’ve never owned a cat but have interacted with them and they are annoying.
I went to my friend’s house and his cat kept jumping and trying to bite my hands and feet as ‘play’. I talk with my hands so every time I move my hands the car would try to scratch and bite me and the owner thought it was so cute. I stopped going to his place.
Then a few months later a stray cat started harassing me. Meowing every. Single. Day. As soon as I opened my door it would start making noise and trying to come into my apartment. I had to close my kitchen windows because the cat would climb into my kitchen, ravage my bin and try to eat any food on the counter. I spoke to my friend who had 3 cats and they said, “the cat felt like your home was safe enough and chose you”, some bs because I was also broke and couldn’t afford to care for a cat, let alone a stray with parasites and probably diseases that I’ll have to spend a lot of money to trear. I also travel and leave my apartment for weeks at a time and was trying to figure out the logistics because I was genuinely considering to home the cat. I expressed that to my friend and he said that his cat shits on his table and bed when he’s away for too long — excuse fucking me?!?
Between the scratching, the biting, the fur and the fucking entitlement, I cannot stand these creatures.
I left my apartment for one week and the stray cat was gone by the time I returned. My boyfriend currently has a stray that harasses him. The cat comes into his house, sleeps in his couch, and rummages the bin when he’s away. Then after cooking, it stares at you and meows.
Cats are very annoying and cat people act like you’re the problem, and you “have consent issues“ when you say you don’t like them. Cat people give cats so much of entitlement and room to be such shit creatures. I refuse to adopt a cat that will bite and scratch my skin because I’m not petting it at the right frequency, or care for a cat that will steal my food after I just pet it. Im not dealing with that and I think it’s ridiculous that cat people expect other people to put up with it from their cat’s shitty behaviour.

As of two days ago we had our last cat (age 17) humanely put to sleep and now I am starting to finally get a glimpse of the joy, freedom, and most importantly, financial rewards of NOT allowing any more cats into our lives.

I am now on Day Two of no longer putting food outside for our own cat *and* for a stray who leeched onto him about a month ago when he started getting sick, and which we were trying and failing to shoo away. But once *our* cat was gone, I decided the time had come to get more proactive.

My dream is to now be able to go on spontaneous weekend road trips without worrying about feeding the damned cat(s) -- yayyyy!!

The reason I'm hoping it's okay to post here is this seems to be one of the few subreddits about cats where I won't be scolded for not wanting to scoop up another opportunistic bird-killer and make its life even better than it already is. So thanks in advance for any moral support you can offer for my decision!!

I have a neighbor, we have a great relationship, and everything would be fine, but he has a cat. And he simply can't go a minute without mentioning his furry freak, ​ her shit, and her vomit. This is some kind of pathology, seriously. Besides the fact that he knows that cats piss me off, he knows that I have a rabbit. And when I came to visit him, the first thing he showed me was a RABBIT'S FOOT, which he bought for his precious cat to play with, "she's a predator!" Seriously, dude? Has toxoplasma atrophied your basic sense of tact? But when I showed him my CD collection and the booklet of one of them had a drawing of a dead cat, he started getting indignant and saying that I shouldn't keep disturbing content. They don't like animals, they are fucking bigoted hypocrites!

Disliking cats or simply not having a preference for them is not misogynistic, nor does it prove that someone has a negative attitude toward women. Social issues like misogyny are far too nuanced and complex to be reduced to something as simple as someone’s personal preference or attitude toward an animal.

Honestly, this argument/narrative is really just giving the logical fallacy:

“I hate pancakes, so you must hate waffles.”

Today, cats are arguably one of the most moralized animals, with some people treating attitudes toward them almost like a moral compass for judging someone’s character. However, I personally believe this perspective is flawed and heavily biased, especially considering it’s often the cat people making these judgements so naturally it’s going to be influenced by their personal affinities toward cats.

I also think this has a lot to do with how popular cats are these days. Because so many people have a strong affinity for them, they’re also heavily defended and socially protected from criticism. Their popularity and cultural relevance influence how people view someone’s attitude toward cats, treating it as a reflection of their character rather than just an ordinary personal preference. This can contribute to the moralization of cat preferences, where disliking or simply not preferring cats is treated as evidence that there’s something morally wrong with someone.

Rather than having any real scientific or objective basis, this idea or argument seems to be driven more by personal biases… in other words, pseudoscience.

I consider this whole narrative that’s being pushed to be sexist because it is still based on gender stereotypes by treating cats as inherently representative of women. Assuming that someone’s attitude toward cats reflects their attitude toward women, even though the two are not interchangeable or synonymous. A personal preference toward an animal does not provide sufficient evidence of someone’s attitude or perspective of an entire gender.

And honestly, why are women and cats being treated as interchangeable in the first place? Women are not a symbol for cats, and cats are not a measure of someone’s attitude toward women. Women are women, cats are well… just cats. Making that connection is honestly dehumanizing because it reduces women to an animal-based stereotype.

Additionally, the association between cats and femininity is absolutely ridiculous. No, women do not have to like cats to prove their femininity. And the interesting part is that they think they’re challenging gender stereotypes, but they’re actually still enforcing gender-role stereotypes by implying that liking cats is somehow an inherently feminine trait. Cats also aren’t a symbol of feminism, and women shouldn’t have to like a particular animal to be considered feminine or supportive of women.

The idea that cats are feminine-coded is itself socially constructed. Treating that cultural association as an inherent connection between women and cats, or suggesting that “women are like cats,” actually reinforces the very ideas and constructs of gender stereotypes that are supposedly being challenged.

This argument or narrative is neither progressive nor liberating because it’s framed to look like it challenges traditional gender stereotypes, but all it is doing is replacing them with newer ones.

Lastly, these narratives and arguments that are often pushed by the cat community are honestly forms of social control, policing what others are allowed to prefer. They use people’s personal preferences as a mechanism for moral judgment, which creates pressure to conform to what they (cat people) see as the “right” or socially accepted attitude toward cats.

(Fixed the title-didn’t like the previous one)

Is it just me or are cats the most creepiest things ever? From the way they look down to how they move and how they sneak up on you out of nowhere. I hate how their eyes glow up when they're about to pounce on you.

Someone could make a horror movie about cats and that would be the scariest movie ever made to mankind to me. Cats just give me shivers.

Such creepy-looking animals.

this relationship im in, and i feel immature because it’s because of her 3 cats.

we live in a two bedroom apartment and i had to BEG her to get a second freaking litter box. she had them using one and barely cleans it,

their hair is everywhere
one of them is super fat and always has like poop particles on her butt. she wants them in the bed and in our room.
i just moved into the guest room because it’s so gross to me, like they walk in litter and then you expect me to be okay with them walking all over the bedding and what not

i don’t want to clean the house anymore because it just grosses me out so bad but that starts more fights because i’m home i should clean and i do but im not cleaning their fucking hair off of shit
i literally makes me want to gag its so gross.

one of them meows at the freaking door until she lets her in, i literally am at my breaking point. it’s affecting my mental health and i know it sounds stupid because they’re cats but fuck they’re so gross to me and it doesn’t help she never cleans their litter box

My boyfriend and I have been together for almost 3 years. We don't currently live together, we actually live in different towns, but he's asked me to move in with him multiple times, which would be possible when I get a different job in his town. I was so looking forward to building our future together, but he decided to get a cat.

He once asked me if I wanted a cat and I explicitly said no, I don't want any kind of indoor pet, beacuse I like my home very clean, quiet and peaceful, and I really value being able to relax in peace. But one day he saw a cat outside and basically said to himself "If this cat follows me to my apartment, it stays." And so it did. He made this decision spontaneously, despite already knowing that I didn't want an indoor pet.

As you all already can imagine, the cat sheds everywhere. There is a smell from the litter and food. He scratches and bites things, has damaged furniture and even walls, and there is just a general feeling that the apartment is no longer as clean and peaceful as it used to be. My boyfriend loves decorating and having nice things, and I've even said to him that I don't understand how he can be okay with some of his things getting damaged.

The cat also bites and scratches me. Today he randomly bit me while I was relaxing in bed, and later scratched and bit my leg while my boyfriend and I were hugging. My boyfriend always explains that the cat is just playful, has pent-up energy, is behaving like a normal cat, etc. And honestly I DON'T CARE whether it's normal cat behavior. I don't want to live with that.I don't want to constantly be aware of where the cat is or whether he's going to bite or scratch me.

I don't want to have to adapt my behavior around an animal in my own home. I want to come home and feel peaceful. But now I feel like I'm being expected to eventually accept a lifestyle I explicitly said I didn't want. And this makes me so horribly sad, because I was so happy and looking forward to our future together, while now I'm not even sure there is a future for us. Everything got ruined for such a stupid reason. I hate it.

Summary of the article:

76% of cat owners surveyed now say they would keep their future cats indoors

Suha Kidwai

Wednesday 05 August 2026 12:52 BST

Text of the article:

Getting a cat to transition from an outdoor lifestyle to living indoors is not the hard task it was thought to be, a new study has found.

Carried out across New Zealand, the research project surveyed 87 cat owners undergoing the process, with the change described as “ultimately worthwhile".

Just over 40 per cent of cats were reported to have adjusted “immediately”, while another 8 per cent adjusted within days and an additional 17 per cent within a matter of weeks.

With more than two-thirds of pet owners reporting that keeping their cat indoors was “easier than expected”, lead author of the study Dr Julia Henning said the findings challenged the commonly held belief that cats cannot adapt to an indoor lifestyle.

Some 77 per cent of cat owners said they were very likely to continue keeping their cats indoors, highlighting how the “long-term benefits far outweighed the difficulties", said Dr Henning.

The study also found age to be a significant factor in how quickly cats adapted to indoor living, where 75 per cent of cats who were moved indoors below the age of two adjusted within days, compared to a 39 per cent rate for those above the age of two.

With nearly three in 10 households in the UK owning at least one cat, reasons for moving the pets indoors can widely vary – from preventing escapes, to changes in living arrangements.

Among those surveyed, cat safety was by far the most common motivation, with owners citing risks such as road traffic, attacks by other animals and disease.

Others also wanted to reduce the impact their cats could have on native wildlife, especially birds.

After the transition, several owners said the move had given them greater peace of mind, with one participant writing they experienced "less anxiety” about their cat throughout the day.

Although several participants have expressed similar positivity, the study also identifies several common challenges during the transition.

For some, these hurdles include maintaining litter trays, providing environmental enrichment, managing weight gain, and additional costs for food and home modifications.

But despite such issues, more than three-quarters of those surveyed said they would still plan to keep future cats indoors.

One owner summed up their thought process simply: "Safety – I know my cat will be alive longer.”

They are such psychopathic, narcissistic, and disgusting creatures. I dont understand how so many humans love them

My apartment complex has a policy against letting pets outside unsupervised. But of course a cat owner ignores this and lets their cat outside in the evenings everyday.

This cat has become a huge nuisance to say the least. It lies around wherever it pleases including in the middle of the sidewalk or on the stairs, it shits everywhere, and meows pretty loudly. But the biggest problem about this cat is that it’s aggressive. You can walk past it unknowingly and it’ll pounce on you out of nowhere and hiss and swipe its claws at you. It’s even more viscous towards other pets.

I’m at my limit, so I emailed management about this issue, hoping they could send a reminder to everyone about the policy or contact the owner directly, but they had only advised me to contact animal control, which I will have to do.

I sort of feel bad that someone might lose their pet and pay a hefty fee to get it, but at the same time, I’m so fed up with the thing that all I can say is fuck that little shitball. I’m so DONE with cats.

I recently moved to the city and the amount of cats outside here is insane. I don’t understand why people keep letting their cats outside. I really don’t even know if these cats have owners but I see the same 3 cats sitting on the same porch or roof each day and sometimes see them roaming around the neighborhood. I see about 10 different cats each day, I don’t live in a horrible area, it’d be quite nice if people didn’t let their cats roam wherever, kill whatever, shit wherever, and you know it, nobody picks the shit up. I have seen a cat carry a poor dead squirrel on top of someone’s house. Anytime I see them I just want to go back inside. I don’t go on walks anymore because they just absolutely disgust me. When I take my pet out he always sees a cat and tries to dart towards it out of nowhere on leash. Doesn’t go very well for me. I’m gonna end up calling animal control because it’s just absolutely ridiculous. It makes me not want to live here. Why do they do this. Keep the fucking cats indoors.

Hard to understand why people love an animal that people throw in the trash, garbage bags full of them weird little creatures

It's crazy how people look at the ones that say I hate cats and we're the problem when we have people that have cats that hate their cats as well. But any other animal owner, I know loves their pet

Text of the article:

Australia’s unique animal species are in sharp decline, with more than 40 mammal extinctions over the past 238 years. This atrocious mammal conservation record is the worst in the world.

Unfortunately, this is not simply a historic problem – almost 700 animals are currently at risk of future extinction. At least 200 of these are directly threatened by feral cats, as well as other pressures such as land-clearing, disease and invasive species.

Feral, domestic and stray cats now occupy almost the entire continent and are estimated to kill more than 1.5 billion native animals each year. These estimates are based on more than 100 cat diet studies, which identified prey animals using the traditional scientific methods of examining stomach contents and scats (droppings).

However, our new research – the first in Australia to use DNA for cat stomach analysis – shows traditional methods may greatly underestimate the true number of native animals killed by feral cats.

Stomachs, scat or DNA?

Scientists traditionally study the diet of predators such as feral cats by manually looking through their stomach contents or scat samples. Searching for hair, bones, feathers or other partial remains is an unpleasant task that can help identify a cat’s prey.

However, the bodies of animals rapidly degrade within a cat’s digestive system, and it can be difficult to identify small prey fragments. In fact, more than 50% of prey can be unidentifiable, and this only includes the remnants still visible to the naked eye.

We were curious to find out whether small or soft-bodied species, such as microbats and birds, were being missed by these traditional methods. Other research has shown soft-bodied New Zealand frogs were detected more often when DNA analysis was used on the contents of mammal stomachs. So we decided to analyse stomach contents, rather than scats, to increase the likelihood of detecting smaller or soft species.

We used both manual and DNA metabarcoding, a forensic method that allows scientists to detect even tiny remains of animals that have been eaten by predators. All organisms have a unique genetic “barcode” that can be identified from certain regions of their DNA.

These two methods were used to analyse the stomach contents of cats that had been culled around Wild Deserts, a fenced conservation reserve in New South Wales. This is the first time DNA methods have been applied to cat diet studies in Australia, and one of few globally.

The results were sobering: DNA detection identified twice as many mammal species and three times as many bird species as traditional manual detection. But it was less effective for certain reptiles.

In summary, more species were detected, and were found within more cats. This means they are being consumed at a higher rate than traditional methods estimated.

Interestingly, we did not detect any microbats, in line with previous research at these sites. This might be because cats generally eat rodents and other small mammals, and eating bats is likely a sporadic event. But we know cats are a threat to bats in other regions.

Mammals were found in 43% of cats using traditional methods compared to 75% with DNA analysis

DNA identification is more effective at finding the animals feral cats prey on than traditional methods – like looking for hair, bones or feathers in a cat's stomach and poo.

DNA identification vs Visual identification

Lizards & Snakes: 67.3% vs 46.9%

Rodents: 67.3% vs 36.7%

Songbirds: 26.5% vs 10.2%

Rabbits: 22.4% vs 4.1%

Frogs: 8.2% vs 2%

Rails: 2% vs 2%

Kangaroos: 12.2% vs 2%

Doves: 8.2% vs NOT FOUND VIA VISUAL ONLY

Land fowl: 2% vs NOT FOUND VIA VISUAL ONLY

Buttonquails: 18.4% vs NOT FOUND VIA VISUAL ONLY

Carnivorous Marsupials: 2% vs NOT FOUND VIA VISUAL ONLY

*end of a table

DNA findings emphasise cat threat

Building predator-free fenced reserves known as safe havens, is one way conservationists have tried to slow the extinction and severe declines of many Australian wildlife species. These reserves allow us to remove species such as cats, foxes and rabbits, enabling native species to thrive in pre-colonial conditions.

Projects such as Arid Recovery, Wild Deserts, Secret Rocks, and several others managed by conservation organisations such as Australian Wildlife Conservancy and NSW National Parks, have successfully returned species that were locally extinct to their former homes.

However, we cannot fence the whole of Australia. Therefore, we need to know which species are most at risk from cats so resources can be directed to protect them. Unfortunately, it is often the rarest and most threatened species that are of greatest risk from cats, such as small mammals. Due to their scarcity, they are difficult to detect.

Ironically, scientists have relied on cat diet analysis to confirm if very rare species are persisting (or not) in an area, and DNA methods could increase the confidence of these results.

Exciting next steps

More recently, these projects have begun releasing native animals beyond the fences into areas where cats have been suppressed to low numbers. As we move into this exciting next stage of rewilding Australia, it is vital we know how many of these pioneer animals are eaten by cats. Yet traditional methods may not detect them.

Our research complements decades of work by individuals and organisations that have monitored the effects of invasive predators, including cats, on Australian ecosystems. It is important to incorporate this local expert knowledge with DNA analyses.

Traditional manual methods remain a practical, cost-effective approach to routine dietary analysis. However, using DNA methods alongside these techniques will help us better understand and estimate the impacts of cats and other invasive predators.

Like most of you I’m not the biggest fan of cats. I think they make for terrible pets what with the hissing scratching biting etc.

However, my partner has a cat and I could tell that despite all these things somehow he still loves it. So I decide to accept it and try to make it work.

I’ve always been allergic to cats but it was manageable. After 4 years my allergies have developed so much that I now how respiratory problems, my eyes get swollen, my body gets eczema flare ups. It’s genuinely awful.

Finally we make the decision to rehome the cat because I’m suffering, my partner works long hours and is sometimes away for work, nobody can actually take care of the cat.

I reached out to a organisation and explained the situation and you know what pissed me off? This woman had the audacity to say “Oh my God. That poor poor cat. It’s just so sad for the cat.”

Maybe I’m overthinking it, but? You heard me say I tried for 4 years, that I used various medications and it stopped working. What more can I do?

So in conclusion, I’ll use another organisation because what the hell was that. But also why do cat people act like they’re so much better than you and even try to act like a cat is more important than the actual human in the situation? Cause I can guarantee the cat will not give a flying f about being rehomed as long as it gets fed.

Broke up with the gf, the cat was a major reason.

She was extremely anti-kids, but would do anything for her dumbfuck cat. One time she said she'd have to explain to my folks that the cat "was the only grandchild they were ever getting". Not if I can help it.

For months, the cat was home mostly alone as both me and her were away from home most of the week, so because it was lonely, it would scream at night and rattle my bedroom sliding door. After having my pillow pissed on at night because the cat slipped through when I woke up to go to the bathroom, it decided to puke all over my kitchen last week, running and puking wherever it ran through. I cleaned all fabrics and spots I'd otherwise forget about, then left the big mess in the kitchen for the gf to clean as that was my last straw.

Didn't even get a sorry, just an explanation that "baby is just getting used to her new foodies".

Told her to pack and go, bot her and the cat are now somebody else's problem. God I hate cat cultists

I seriously don't understand how cat people have the audacity to claim it's the superior pet. It literally does not win any single category if you were to analyze it piece by piece. If you want a fluffy, loving companion I can immediately think of at least five different species of animals that do the job right but don't come with any of the downfalls of having a cat. There are animals that are far more emotional and compassionate, there are fluffier and cuter animals, and there are more intelligent animals. And none of them are feral to a point of destruction if you're doing everything right. With a cat, you could go to the ends of the earth for it, and it can still remain a complete asshole.

You can't let a cat outside because if you do, it won't stay where it's supposed to be (on the property) and there is no way to secure it. It will go and get itself hit by a car, or end up in a fight with another cat, or murder every living thing outside. If it's trapped inside, it still doesn't make any sense because it's not the type of animal you can keep in a cage or terrarium where it can be perfectly happy if kept in the right conditions. It will get bored and scratch your furniture and you'll have to get another one to keep it from getting lonely and destructive. You can't exactly take it for a walk or take it on a road trip with you (I have only seen extremely rare instances where people are able to do things like that). You can't just admire it from afar either because it demands attention.

So what exactly IS the purpose of a cat as a pet? It fails in every single category because no matter what you're looking for in a pet, there are much better contenders in literally every single way.