Accordingly, I support my local farmers’ market because I want to eat food grown locally. I make my best effort to eat meat and dairy from livestock that was raised humanely and drug-free. I walk everywhere rather than using motor vehicles, which I can do because I live in a safe and walkable city and I’m able-bodied enough to do so.

But sustainability means different things to different people.

Hallelujah! The farmers' market is back, and I can finally buy tomatoes that taste like tomatoes! A person pays a farmer for some fresh veggies by Shutterstock

And when some people start using the word “sustainability” as a Newspeak term that really means “putting cheap, crappy ingredients in pet food,” that just makes me mad.

According to a recent article in Science Daily, University of Iowa animal sciences researcher Kelly Swanson, in cooperation with scientists at The Nutro Co., are “raising a number of important questions on the sustainability of pet ownership.” 

What does that mean, "the sustainability of pet ownership?" Apparently, it means “applying the ethics of living as a human omnivore to animal carnivores.”

Hmm. Why is this cat eating a mouse? Could it be because he's designed to eat meat? Cat eating a mouse by Shutterstock

The pet food industry is very tightly linked with livestock production and the human food system, as the article's authors say. But most pet foods are made from the castoffs of the human meat production industry -- organs and other parts that humans refuse to eat, for example, and fat and carcasses rendered into sludge for use in pet foods and other products.

Or, as the article euphemistically puts it, “Pet food manufacturers also make heavy use of the secondary products from the human food chain.”

This, if you ask me, is a second-rate and pretty unhealthy solution to meeting the nutritional requirements of obligate carnivores.

Sure, cats eat plants ... when they want to throw up! Norwegian Forest Cat eating grass by Shutterstock

So, what’s the solution to this pesky “animals need to eat meat to stay healthy” thing? Well, says the article, if owners didn’t foolishly think their pets needed extremely high levels of protein, maybe we could make pet food that’s more “sustainable.”

After all, Swanson says that dogs and cats require specific nutrients -- not specific ingredients -- and that it’s possible to replace animal protein with plant protein in food to give our cats the protein they need. After all, his research showed that kittens fed vastly different protein-to-carbohydrate ratios all remained healthy, so it has to be totally fine to feed our cats corn and potato starch and soybeans forever and ever amen, am I right?

Never mind that cats can stay healthy in the short term on just about anything that fills their stomachs and sort of meets their nutritional needs.

Never mind that everyone who passed eighth-grade biology knows that cats are obligate carnivores.

Let’s go to the dictionary to help Swanson and his colleagues brush up on their vocabulary:

• Obligate (adjective) 1: restricted to one particularly characteristic mode of life; 2: biologically essential for survival.
• Carnivore (noun) 1: any of an order (Carnivora) of typically flesh-eating mammals that includes dogs, foxes, bears, raccoons, and cats; broadly: a carnivorous animal.

Soy-based proteins are a common pet food ingredient, the article says, and their production is a lot more efficient in terms of fossil fuel requirements.

Yeah, about that: According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 93 percent of soy produced in the United States is genetically modified. I don’t knowingly eat GMO crops, and I don’t want to feed them to my cats, either. There's nothing sustainable about crops whose DNA has been manipulated for short-term gain and that are being banned in Europe and South America because of the known and/or potential health risks of consuming them.

I'd eat this random flower from a Seattle traffic turtle before I'd eat GMO crops!

“Nutritional sustainability is not just about minimizing environmental impact," the article states, "it also involves promoting pet health through appropriate nutrition and food quality and safety.” 

What?

The authors spend 500 words bloviating about how nutritionally inappropriate foods are the key to nutritional sustainability for pets. Then they say that nutritional sustainability is about promoting pet health?

There’s nothing healthy for cats about eating a diet composed totally of plant proteins.

If we really want a sustainable lifestyle, we should make the commitment to eat more consciously and lower our fossil-fuel consumption. But we can't stop feeding our cats the diet they have evolved to eat -- the diet they need to eat -- because a pet food company and its scientists are telling us that it's the PC thing to do.

About JaneA Kelley: Punk-rock cat mom, science nerd, animal shelter volunteer, and all-around geek with a passion for bad puns, intelligent conversation, and role-play adventure games. She gratefully and gracefully accepts her status as chief cat slave for her family of feline bloggers, who have been writing the cat advice column, Paws and Effect, since 2003. JaneA dreams of making a great living out of her love for cats.

But over the last 20 years or so, PETA has descended to such depths of insanity and, yes, animal cruelty, that it has lost any animal rights cred it might once have had.

Models with the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency show their support (and their lingerie) in support of PETA's "Naked" campaign Photo by s_bukley / Shutterstock.com

I noticed the first car on the PETA crazy train sometime in the mid-1990s, when it came to my home in midcoast Maine. Some of its “lobster liberation” activists protested the “cruel” annual Maine Lobster Festival, and even went so far as to “liberate” some of them back into Rockland Harbor.

Since then, PETA has engaged in a nonstop series of increasingly ridiculous publicity stunts that are not only a waste of its donors’ money, the pranks reduce whatever credibility the organization might once have had.

Take, for example, PETA’s “Naked” campaign, in which naked celebrities are featured in ads with text reading “I’d rather go naked than wear fur.”

Image released into the public domain by PETA

You go, PETA: Exploiting women is an awesome way to get publicity. And its explanation: “Unlike our opposition, which is mostly composed of wealthy industries and corporations, PETA must rely on getting free 'advertising' through media coverage.”

Oh, boo hoo. Poor PETA has no advertising budget at all. If it did, it would post huge billboards and buy full-page color ads ... oh, wait.

The thing that really hisses me off about PETA is that almost all of the animals it “rescues” from cruelty situations end up being killed, whether they’re healthy or not. I'm going to spare you the gruesome photos depicting the fate of those cats and dogs. If you want to see them, do an Internet search.

Please, PETA: Do tell me more about all those kitties and doggies you "rescue." Angry cat by Shutterstock

PETA’s own report to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services about the animals in its Norfolk “shelter” makes it clear that it doesn't give a crap about saving animals: Of 1,877 animals that came to PETA’s shelter, 1,675 of them were killed, and 1,045 of those were cats. Only 23 were adopted -- that’s a 1 percent adoption rate! Even the highest kill of the high-kill shelters in the poorest cities do better than that!

In 2008, the Center for Consumer Freedom, an advocacy and lobbying group which has had other run-ins with PETA, petitioned the Department of Agriculture to reclassify PETA’s shelter as a slaughterhouse.

Please, PETA, don’t strain yourselves “rescuing” all those animals! It must be hard to budget for sheltering when you’re spending so much money on porn sites, fat-shaming billboards, and full-page magazine ads featuring naked celebrities.

Oh, fat shaming too? Stay classy, PETA!

Naturally, PETA is opposed to the no-kill movement. PETA says that by killing adoptable animals, they’re “doing society’s dirty work.” Who would expect anything else?

Oh, and PETA informs us that “It’s likely that your cat or dog will thrive on a vegetarian diet.”

WHAT?!?! PETA President Ingrid Newkirk and her cabal of crazy must have missed Biology 101: Cats are obligate carnivores. That means they must eat meat to survive and be healthy.

Sure, PETA does “undercover investigations” to root out animal cruelty, but I can never fully trust what I see because I know how ridiculously biased the organization is. When you’re looking for information that supports your beliefs, you’re certainly not going to see anything that runs contrary to those beliefs -- and if you do, you look elsewhere.

If PETA wants to be a credible animal advocacy group, it needs to stop being hypocrites, stop conducting sensationalist publicity stunts and crazy-train "liberation" campaigns, and start studying the facts about no-kill, TNR, and other real animal-welfare movements that it so despises.

In short: Go home, PETA, you’re drunk.

What's your opinion on PETA? Let us know in the comments!

The piece was against trap-neuter-return, not surprising for people in the hardcore “cats kill gazillions of birds and must die” camp, so nobody was surprised by that. What had us all appalled and furious about the article was this statement: “There are two effective, humane alternatives to the cat hell of TNR. One is [acetaminophen], (the human pain medication) -- a completely selective feral-cat poison. But the TNR lobby has blocked its registration for this use. The other is trap and euthanize.”

Of course cats catch and kill birds! It would be naive to think they don't. ... Cat carrying dead bird by Shutterstock

The TNR lobby has blocked the drug’s registration for the use of deliberately poisoning feral cats? I wonder why! Maybe because it’s a felony in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to kill outdoor cats -- feral or otherwise. Or maybe because, according to an article in Petplace, this is what happens when a cat is poisoned with the stuff:

• Stage 1 (0-12 hours). Symptoms include vomiting, dullness, difficulty breathing, lethargy, anorexia, weakness, development of brown-colored gums (instead of a normal pink color) and drooling.
• Stage 2 (12-24 hours). Symptoms include swelling of the face, lips and limbs, uncoordinated movements, convulsions, coma, and potential death.
• Stage 3 (more than 24 hours). Symptoms are associated with liver failure and include a painful belly, jaundice (yellow tinge to gums, eyes and skin) and an inappropriate mental state.

Acetaminophen poisoning is a slow, grisly, painful, horrific, and completely inhumane death!

But wait, it gets better: After outcry from community cats all over the country, the op-ed column was quietly sanitized to remove the acetaminophen reference. Fortunately, the Internet is forever, and plenty of people had the presence of mind to take screen shots of the original column before the Sentinel’s editors whitewashed it.

... but advocating for murder is RIDICULOUS! See the full op-ed here.

A couple of days later, after the calls for action continued, Williams issued a classic non-apology: “While the statement was not inaccurate, it was unwise because readers might construe it as a suggestion to go out and start poisoning feral cats. What’s more, the statement could be, indeed was, manipulated by feral-cat advocates into something I didn’t write or intend. I should have used the generic, lesser-known name.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way” and “I’m sorry X twisted my words” and "I should have used the generic name" are not apologies. They’re excuses.

Of course, cats also catch mice and rats, which are known to cause disease. Cat carrying mouse by Shutterstock

Williams was suspended from his role as editor-at-large for Audubon, a largely symbolic gesture, since the role of “editor-at-large” is a freelance position and not a salaried staff job. What does this mean? Poor Ted’s guest column won’t appear in the next issue of Audubon Magazine.

To the general surprise of nobody at all, Audubon’s “review of what had happened” resulted in the conclusion “we’re satisfied that there’s no larger pattern of missteps that would warrant further disciplinary action" and they reinstated him as a contributor.

Of course, that’s to be expected, given that “Audubon’s long-standing view, strongly supported by the best available science and laid out in a resolution by our board of directors, is that cats -- particularly feral cats -- are a leading cause of bird deaths.”

Best available science? Yeah, about that ...

Did they mean the work by Nico Dauphiné, another well-known cat poisoner? The one whose “studies” are based on other bad science? Seriously. Anyone with a little bit of time and a little bit of understanding of what constitutes sound research could check those studies and find good evidence to refute them. Just ask Catster Hero Peter Wolf, author of Vox Felina, who does that work every day. (By the way, his column on Williams’ reinstatement is also a good read.)

Barn cat sleeping on grain bag by Shutterstock

I just can’t wrap my head around the idea that people hate cats so much that they’re willing to advocate for their torture and murder! I can’t even begin to understand why people who consider themselves to be scientists could look at studies whose findings are extrapolated to the point of hysterical hyperbole from a ridiculously small sample size and fail to see the flaws in the research and conclusions. Unfortunately, I can comprehend how so many people can fall prey to a lie that, when repeated often enough, gains the status of truth.

I’m sick at heart when I think of the grim fate these cats could suffer. I’m tired of the constant drumbeat of anti-cat calls to arms. And I wonder when, if ever, the extremists in the bird-advocate camp will see past their irrational hatred.

Does this whole affair make you as mad as it makes me? Share your views in the comments.

"Why for U ban me? U gives me a sad!" 4-month old F1 Savannah cat by Jason Douglas, released into the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Before I saw that story, I had no idea that there were states where it was illegal to own Savannahs. I did a little more research and found out that Georgia is one of about five states and several cities (including New York City) that ban the ownership of Savannahs.

This is nothing more than breed-specific legislation. And I feel the same way about BSL for cats as I do about laws that prohibit owning Pit Bull dogs: It’s crap. Governments have no place banning the ownership of any dog or cat based solely on its breed.

Yes, the Savannah is a hybrid of a domestic cat and an African wildcat known as a serval, and I can understand how people could get bent out of shape over that. But there are very few Savannahs in the U.S. for two reasons: They’re hard to breed, and holy cow-pies, they’re expensive!

Even in most places where it’s legal to own Savannahs, special permits are required. I get that when it comes to, say F1 (half-serval) or F2 (one-quarter serval) Savannahs, but after that, what’s the point? In my totally unscientific opinion, once a cat is three or more generations removed from its wild ancestors, it’s a domestic cat. Period.

Savannah cat climbing a fence by Shutterstock

But here’s the thing: Even if you can afford a Savannah, you’ve really got to know what you’re doing if you’re going to get one. They are very high-energy cats that need regular exercise, companionship and, probably more than any other breed, a species-appropriate diet.

According to the Savannah Cat Club, early-generation foundational stock (F1 and F2) Savannahs tend to retain a lot of the shyness and intensity of their serval ancestors, so if you want one of these, you'll need to accommodate your life to the cat's and not expect it to be your fluffy little lap cat. If you’re not willing to meet a Savannah's special needs, please don’t get one.

A cat isn't recognized as a legitimate Savannah unless it has three generations of Savannah-to-Savannah breeding in its pedigree -- which means it would have to be several generations removed from the foundational stock -- and would therefore have barely a drop of “wildness” in it.

As with any specialty breed, some people have shockingly bad reasons for wanting to own Savannahs. I once heard a man say that he wanted to get a pair of them because “they’re bad-ass, and they’ll protect my property.”

Yes, he was serious.

One of the people interviewed for the WSB-TV story said she wanted a Savannah “to have the larger animal, to be able to walk on a leash. They have very dog-like personalities. I think it would be awesome to own something like that.”

Savannah cat walking on a leash by Shutterstock

Wait a minute. You want a Savannah because it’s a cat that acts like a dog and you can walk it on a leash?

I’ve got a better idea: How about if you’re going to own a Savannah, you do it because you love the breed and you have the time, energy, and skills it takes to make that cat’s life wonderful?

No laws can prevent people from being dumb, but blanket bans can and do prevent responsible people who want to have Savannahs in their life from being able to do so.

The breed isn't the problem; stupid people are. Let's get BSL out of the cat world.

What is a "real man" anyway?

I also get annoyed when people say, "Real women have curves." (Here comes a bit of a tangent.) I definitely have curves and I am pretty sure plenty of you are gorgeously curvaceous women. I'm also pretty sure some of you are gorgeously slender women. What do we have in common? We're all real because we exist. The problem is commercials and advertising give us only a narrow idea of what women should look and act like. Have you ever flipped through a magazine and done that thing where you start comparing yourself to the models in the ads? Then all of a sudden you start thinking about how you need to get a gym membership to lose those "10 extra pounds?" Ladies, I'm here to tell you you're perfect exactly as you are. 

So what does this have to do with cat guys?

I have a thing for long hair.

Men also face stigma for deviating from what a man is supposed to be. "Real men" are supposed to like football and beer and movies with lots of explosions. They're not supposed to like cats because cats are "girly." Some men follow sports teams closely, prefer brews, and can't wait to see the next blockbuster -- but some men like reading poetry, gardening, and sitting with cats on their laps. As long as people are being true to themselves, they are real and valid and deserving of respect.

Love the atmosphere in this photo.

What if you are a woman and you like beer and movies where things blow up? Are you a less "real" woman? Just the same, what if you are you a man who likes cats? We love that! But we also like men who prefer dogs or iguanas or hedgehogs.

Real men are just men. Some of them like cats.

Advertising already likes to remind us of how imperfect we are, so let's not do it to ourselves -- we are all real human beings, striving for companionship and understanding in this great, big world.

I also really like tattoos.

How cute is this?

Speechless.

Images via Cute Boys with Cats

Read other posts about men who like cats on Catster:

• Ladies! The Next Generation of Cat Guys Is Coming
• I Don't Care What You Say: Cat Guys Make the Best Husbands
• A Love Letter to My Cat, Thomas

I'm so angry about this I have to sit in my happy place.

There’s a multitiered pay scale for writers at Catster. I’m on the bottom of the scale. There are ways to move up. People who do “reportage” get moved up the scale. “Expert reporting” gets moved up. It’s complicated and involves math, but trust me, there are writers here making more than I do. This annoys me for three reasons.

Apparently this isn't worth of the big bucks.

The first is obvious. I’m the most important writer on Catster, and yet these chuckleheads make more money than me. I understand that everyone thinks he or she is the most important person on Earth. But I’m right, and I can offer evidence. I live inside. Everyone else lives outside. As we’ve covered earlier, outside is bad, it’s loud and crowded, and it smells outside-y.

Also, I’m a candidate for president. By the time this article reaches print, I’ll probably be president. How many other Catster writers can say that? Also, they’re all humans. This site is lousy with human writers. I’m among the only felines on staff. Most cats can’t spell Catster if you spot them the “c” and the “ster.”

Most cats aren't smart enough to work as writers.

The second reason this annoys me is that I hate being misjudged. What I do isn’t considered reporting, which is crazy. Look at all the work I do. I pose for photos. I look outside. I’ve gone out to the porch. I look over Daddy’s shoulder when he does research for class. I glance at the television when Mommy and Daddy watch the news. I scan reader comments on my column. If what I do isn’t reporting, then cleaning up where I poop isn’t an honor.

But the final reason concerns sheer human arrogance: A human can be considered an expert on cats, but I’m not? I walk on all fours. I have orange fur, a furry tail, whiskers, and a finely honed predator’s instinct. I know what it’s like to live in an animal shelter. I poop in a box. Despite all of these things, I’m not a cat expert. 

If I’m not a cat expert, who else possibly could be? Seriously, most “experts” learn about cats from books or studying. I’m the only one who really understands what it is to be a cat. Maybe a book can tell you where my kidneys are or how I react to certain medications, but I’m the only writer at Catster who can tell you whether cats scatter kibble at dinner time for their homies who will never leave the shelter.

If you've never laid across all for of your legs, you're not a cat expert.

But I’m not an expert.

The other reason I'm annoyed is that last weekend my editors attended a conference for cat writers. I am not making that up. My editor left town for the Cat Writers' Association conference. I’ve attended meetings with every editor at Catster. They're humans. I might be the only cat writer in the world! I should be attending that conference. I should be giving the keynote address at that conference!

What, don't I look professional enough?

Except that I don’t want to go to that conference, because it’s outside ... and I hate crowds ... and traveling.

Shut up.

Baxter drapes himself on soft furniture.

Part of the reason for outlining this code comes from Catster's parent company, SAY Media. (It also runs the publications ReadWriteWeb, Remodelista, and xoJane.) Our company culture stresses the importance of point of view -- how, without standing up and championing something, a publication fails to stand for anything at all, and it doesn't do much to get people talking or thinking about anything they do.

People often ask what our point of view is, and it's not simple to articulate. Not because we have no point of view at Catster; quite the contrary. We are fiercely opinionated when it comes to dog and cat issues, so it's difficult to just pick one and say "There, that's what we stand for," and be done with it. Plus, it's a complex world, and all the relationships among people, animals, big commercial interests, laws, nature, science, personal economics, and lots of things we're leaving out allow for some disagreement and some nuance. Plus, we're in the information business, and one of the things a journalist has to abide is that you're never done learning. Keep asking questions. And if new sources bring you information you didn't know before, it's okay to change your mind.

A good starting point is the image below that Janine put together for a presentation to tell other people in our company about our two sites. It summarizes -- or at least introduces -- some of our main values nicely. It worked well that day, so we'll use it here too.

To borrow words from Janine, "It doesn't come close to addressing [our] stand on every last dog and cat issue out there; nor does it get us closer to a definitive point of view when it's lumped together like this." Just the same, it did lead us to five messages we believe are important enough to clarify and explain at some length below. So the next time someone asks you what those crazy kids at Catster HQ believe, you'll have the answer in five easy bullet points.

5 Things We Believe at Catster

Keith and Baxter, they do have their rituals.

1. A cat is not an "it" or a "that." A cat is a "who."

Keith says: Cats are our friends. Literally. When I was young, my family moved a lot, so I spent a lot of time alone. It made me strong in a lot of ways, and it also showed me to value the real connections in my life because some are weaker than they appear and others are fleeting. One of my first such connections was with an orange tabby I named Topper. His love and companionship were one constant in an ever-changing world that could be pretty scary. Since then I've lived with nine cats (not simultaneously), and I've been honorary kitty daddy to about that many others.

I've learned that cats keep us company after tiring days at work. They help us through hard times after a breakup or a death. Caring for them makes us happy and helps rebuild our broken hearts. Cats make us laugh just by being themselves, and when we discover them living in desperate situations, they can take hold of us with such a fierce grip that we bring them home. Cats depend on us for food, shelter, and medical attention, sure, but we're also their primary sources for love -- something we all need. These are real relationships. So of course a cat is a "who," not an "it."

2. We care immensely about where you get your next pet, and we think you should care, too.

Vicky says: It never occurred to me to do anything other than get my cats from shelters or rescues. When I was a kid, our vet took in litters of strays and offered them out, which is how we got our first three.

When I was a kid, no farm kittens were safe. I'd scoop them up and smooch them.

Some of my cats just walked into my life -- and yes, I checked to see whether they had owners or microchips. I suspect Frisbee belonged to an elderly neighbor who passed away. He was so handsome and fluffy that he had clearly not been stray or lost for long. One day he was sitting on the stoop and the next he was hanging out in our kitchen, demanding to be fed. Meanwhile, Miss Uppity Tibbs moved in after her owners got a dog. (When she visited them wearing her new collar, they wrote to us saying they were glad she had found a happier home with us.)

Keith says: The horrors of kitten mills and the need to curb overpopulation by spaying and neutering didn't occur to me when I was young. The cats I had as a kid came from people in the neighborhood whose cats had kittens -- which is one step better than a pet store, but still problematic, I see now.

It was my first pet-store cat as a young adult who opened my eyes. This adorable gray-and-white kitten named Junior died within two months from an incurable blood disorder. When I protested to the person working at the store where I got him, he said sadly, "This happens a lot." Then I set about learning why it happens a lot -- kitten mills -- and also about the huge feral population and the unthinkable percentage of cats in shelters who get euthanized rather than adopted. "So many are out there," it occurred to me. "Why do people intentionally make more?" Since then all my cats have come from shelters or, in the case of Tiger Lily, the streets.

Petra is a little linebacker of a kitty.

3. We champion adoption. 

Vicky says: We understand that you might want an adorable kitten or young cat next time rather than a raggedy, grumpy, less-cute, older cat who might require thousands of dollars in vet bills. (Oh, how we've been there.) We won't judge you, because we're just glad that every kitty, young or old, who goes home from the shelter leaves a space for another one.

Our aim is to educate people, not scold them -- and we still have a long way to go, as Petfinder founder Betsy Saul estimates that 40 percent of pets in the U.S. today are from mills. So that's why there's an entire section of the Catster site dedicated to adoption, and that's why we run articles about the amazing people who foster, rescue, and shelter cats and are completely devoted to helping as many of them as possible lead happy lives in new forever homes. Read, for example, "Meet the Happy Kitties of Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary." Or "Big-Cat Caretaker Dana Fredsti Still Finds Time for the Kittens." Or "Catster Heroes: Texas Real Estate Agent Becomes Cat Rescuer." 

Vicky and the Velvet Lamb, a former feral kitten.

4. We believe harming cats is criminal and should be condemned by society as such. 

We know that we have a long way to go, based on the simple fact of the reports we bring you on the atrocities humans are capable of inflicting on animals. Janine invokes Mohandas Gandhi's quote, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." While such stories can be disturbing to read, we think it's vital to share them with Catster readers. By giving them a wider exposure, we hope to inspire others to act and prevent cruelty to animals.

5. We believe we can help you become a better pet parent (or owner or slave or chief of staff ... whatever you want to call yourself).

In between bringing you adorable videos, heartwarming interviews, and pictures of chic cat stuff, we want to give you solid, useful advice from experts and experienced cat parents alike. We know that everyone from beginners to seasoned pet pros reads Catster articles, so our mission is to have items of interest for both the enthusiast and the novice.

Frisbee hopped the fence at Christmas 2001 and moved in immediately.

Dr. Eric Barchas' "Ask a Vet" column is going strong (he was Catster's very first blogger years ago!). Regular columnists JaneA Kelley and Dorian Wagner (our very own Crazy Cat Lady) bring news and good advice, while we have guest writers and regulars every day of the week, talking about every angle of taking care for your kitty and making sure she has a long, happy life. And, of course, we invite you, the reader, to share your stories in the Catster Confessional series. 

Anyway, there you have it. These are our values here at Catster, naked as a newborn kitten. Now we'd love to hear what your values are when it comes to your cats -- or pets in general. 

Vicky Walker is Catster and Dogster's managing editor. Read her full bio and recent stories.

Keith Bowers is Catster and Dogster's associate editor. Read his full bio and recent stories. 

Congratulations on your new job, your new marriage, your new baby, or your new apartment. Surely whatever it is that has changed in your life is going to make you extremely happy.

Too bad your lifelong companion and furry friend through thick and thin won't be there to experience it with you.

Cat in cage by Shutterstock

Nope, because you decided to surrender them to a shelter, they'll spend their days alone, cowering in the corner of a cold steel two-by-two-foot cage. While you're cooing at your baby (remember when your cat was your baby?) or cuddling your partner (remember how cute it used to be when your cat shared a pillow with you?), your cat will be huddled in a litter box out of fear and uncertainty, desperately wondering when you'll come back for him.

The shelter workers will pet him a little when they have time, but there are 300 other cats in the same situation and there just isn't enough time to go around. Some people might come in to adopt a cat, but they'll walk right by yours because he's old and scared -– even though he was so sweet in your home, where he felt safe.

Orphan kitten in cage by Shutterstock

Volunteers in the community will work tirelessly to network your cat's picture on Facebook and Twitter, along with his sad story about the person who heartlessly dumped him and how he deserves to get out and have a second chance in life. I'm one of those people. I'll lose sleep over your cat and spend hours trying to get him out of that horrible shelter and offer my own money to help with costs.

Because it's not your cat's fault that he's there. He is a great cat, but even the greatest cats don’t always make it out alive. 

If he's lucky, your cat will find a new home with someone who felt sorry for him, and with that, is a better person than you'll ever be. If your cat is lucky enough to find a new home, it will be his forever home –- unlike the home you gave him, which lasted only until circumstances changed and he wasn't a priority anymore. 

Animal shelter cat by Shutterstock

But if he's not one of the lucky few, he'll never know another home. Or even another day. 

How people like you can live with yourselves is beyond me. How you can take a pet you've supposedly loved for years and suddenly discard it at a shelter where it has a tremendously high chance of being put down is something I'll never understand. 

If I was your friend in real life, and learned that you'd done this to your pet, I'd scratch you right off my friend list. You'd be dead to me, a cliché that mirrors all too clearly how you must feel about the pet your dumped.

But even though I'd consider you the lowest kind of being in the world, I'd still fight to save your cat and find him the new home he deserved. You would have no idea how much effort, time, caring, and selflessness it would take to save your cat, but me and many other animal lovers would join forces to do it.

Sad red cat by Shutterstock

And if we fail to get him out in time, we'll cry as though he were our own. Because we aren't uncaring a-holes like you (don't pardon my French).

Sincerely,  

Everyone who works in rescue

Here's a video that is so perfect and on point. It's about dogs, but applies to all pets. This is a conversation between a shelter worker and someone who wants to surrender his pet.