I Prefer to Keep Willow Indoors

Before I owned a cat (I've always been a dog person), I thought that this was common sense -- keeping cats indoors. (Unless we're talking about feral cats, though, who are exactly the ones we should be adopting and rescuing and keeping safe indoors.)

I never knew that keeping cats indoors was ever a controversial take until I rescued Willow, and found out that there was this faction of cat owners who believe that cats deserve to roam the outdoors until they are tired and decide to go home on their own after a long day of hunting and/or feline fornication. 

This, despite the fact that indoor cats live almost twice as long as their free-roaming counterparts. And never mind that cats, because they are still excellent hunters -- an instinct that domestication (ha!) miserably failed to completely stamp out -- are responsible for the deaths of endangered birds and small mammals.

Those who support free roaming contend that indoor cats live long but boring lives, and what kind of life is that?

This is one debate that won't die down soon. But I guess it boils down to your own personal preference. Personally, I prefer Willow to be safe, sound, and healthy inside the apartment. I try my best to keep him engaged with toys and treats and cuddles, but if he still finds that boring (but I doubt it because I had him neutered, which lessens the urge of male cats to roam), then tough luck. I'd rather have a relatively bored indoor cat than one that's flattened by a car or ravaged by feline HIV.

Men don't have the right to declare what a woman’s vocation should be

Harrison Butker's speech telling graduating women that the most important roles for them is to be wives, mothers, and homemakers naturally earned public backlash.

You're essentially telling young people, who've just powered through years and years of coursework -- and are excited to start their careers -- that they should be psyched about starting a family? 

😂

It was the wrong venue for that sort of message. Some might disagree with this assessment because Butker, who spoke at a small Catholic college in Kansas, is a Latin mass advocate. You can't get more traditional and old-school Catholic than that.

The outrage mostly came from the students whose message Butker targeted, and that's to be expected. I'm not saying being a wife, mother, and homemaker should be looked down on. My mother was a wife, mother, and homemaker, and she was one of the most important people to me. I looked up to her, and she was very instrumental to what I am now as a person.

But for God's sake, if you're Butker, that wasn't the time and place to push your agenda. 

Even the Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, an order of nuns who co-founded Benedictine College, understand this. They released a statement condemning Butker’s speech, saying it did not “represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested.”

Bottom line: men don't have the right to declare what a woman’s vocation should be.