Vodulas [they/them]

  • 8 Posts
  • 469 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 13th, 2023

help-circle







  • OK, I’ll bite.

    Trump will be worse for marginalized people, trans folks in particular. Harris has a history of supporting LGBTQIA+ rights.

    Trump will be worse for Palestine (and has said as much). Harris has at least entertained a cease fire.

    Trump, despite the lies that he utters, will make every move to implement Project 2025, which will destroy any semblance of democracy. Harris won’t do that.

    I am so sick of the bosthsideism bullshit. Just because they are both bad, does not mean one isn’t dramatically worse. This election is going to be close, and as shitty as it is, the US is a 2 party system. Third parties do not have a chance with the current electoral system.

    If you want that to change, you have start local and work up the chain. Not voting or voting third party is pointless until there is a change in system, and that starts locally.





  • Showed this to my very green thumbed partner. She said sounds like mealy bugs, but the solution is the same as aphids.

    Water/alcohol/drop of soap solution

    70% isopropal alcohol - 1 part alcohol to 7 parts water, one drop of soap

    90% isopropal alcohol - 1 part alcohol to 9 parts water, one drop of soap

    Spray a cloth with the solution, then manually wipe down the plant. Spray the plant, but DO NOT put it under a light or in the sun until it is dry as the leaves will burn. Let it dry, then do manual removal of the bugs by wiping it down with the solution every day or every other day. It might take several weeks. Her exact words is that “It takes vigilance.”






  • So depending on the cat breed… virtually no difference at all. The larger of the 2 cats that we feed (shed cat, remember “feral”)… is 20-22 pounds (the smaller brother is 16-17 lbs). He is just as heavy as an average bobcat. Though admittedly less “stocky”. But my point is that they’re similar, “virtually the same” or “barely different”. I never claimed 1:1. But if they’re 99% the same… then it’s the same. Marginally larger is not sufficient argument that they’re different. Bob cats are not like mountain lions. They’re not “huge”.

    Just because some domestic cats can get as big as some bobcats does not make that the norm. Also, size is not the only differentiator, which is why I brought up breeding, food source, and habitat.

    Check the graph of your own source…https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380/figures/2 It shows that normal owned domestic cats are not the issue, which is exactly what the comic is pointing “fun” at. The “owner” that feeds the cat and lets them outside from time to time are nowhere near the problem. You’re context switching between “Feral” and owned and claiming that everything is bad when it’s only one category or the other. This is literal bad faith argument.

    Domestic cats and feral cats are the same species, so I apologize for not making that distinction in the one sentence. It is an easy mistake to make, and you did the same thing in your next paragraph:

    Further… No, domestic cats don’t “tend” to live in colonies. They only do so only due to food issues and will arguably NEVER create social group unless it’s required.

    And went on to describe feral cats. That being said, I literally said feral cats were the problem. From my previous comment:

    The comic itself is about pets, not feral cats, so it makes sense that OP would be focusing on that. Feral cats are the biggest problem in the discussion about killing native wildlife (birds in particular).

    Talking about bad faith, the part you left out in the description of feral cats is:

    This does not inevitably happen, and some will live singly, **but it is not uncommon for small groups of co-operating females and kittens (matrilinear colonies) to develop. **

    That […] did a lot of heavy lifting in your version…

    actually means 1.2 as an average… 1.2 and 1.4 isn’t that far apart.

    That is a 15% difference, which in breeding numbers is huge. And this is talking about number of litters, so doesn’t even get down to total number of kittens born (although litter size is pretty similar). Also of note, bobcats don’t generally start breeding until their second year. Domestic cats start at 6 months of age, which is why we fix cats as soon as possible.

    Then this comic doesn’t apply to a very large subset of owners who do the right thing and virtually all cats that make it to any human system at all. Now you can fuck off with pushing it onto everyone which is what OP is doing in half of their posts in this thread.

    Who said it was about responsible cat owners? Show me where I said all cat owners do this? Or OP for that matter? He has been responding to folks that literally say they let their pet cats outside.

    That makes the comic fucking stupid. It makes the OP a jackass for targeting a group of people who aren’t the problem.

    The comic is about the health of the cats. Feral cats came up as a natural progression of that discussion. I don’t actually like the comic, but it isn’t about the health of wildlife in any way that I can see, but about the health of house cats. It is pretty well documented that outdoor cats do not live as long as indoor only cats.

    And makes you an accomplice for shilling it as well by conflating the two groups of problem as if they’re the same.

    Again, when did I say they are the same group? This particular thread was because someone unrelated said domestic cats would be outside if humans weren’t involved.


  • Again, I never said other cats would not exist. The comic is about domestic cats, not native cats.

    Bobcats are wildly different from domestic cats. For instance, they don’t decimate local bird populations and they are generally solitary creatures. Domestic cats tend to live in colonies and do in fact decimate bird populations. In regards to juvenile bobcats, their range increases and they move to their own, mostly solitary, range as they get older. Domestic cats don’t grow out of living in a feral colony. Bobcats breed less frequently (usually once, but sometimes twice a year) whereas domestic cats tend to have more than one litter a year (1.4 on average), so their numbers go up a lot faster. Adult bobcats are also 2-3 times as big as adult domestic cats.

    And yet… OP is in the thread judging everyone for ANY cat being outside Not talking about “feral” at all and specifically goes out of their way to include ALL domestic cats period.

    The comic itself is about pets, not feral cats, so it makes sense that OP would be focusing on that. Feral cats are the biggest problem in the discussion about killing native wildlife (birds in particular). The thing is, you don’t get feral cats without people letting their unfixed house cats roam free. This is also leaving out the fact the that letting a house cat roam free is bad for the cat itself (shorter lifespans and more diseases/parasites), which is, at least as I have been reading it, is where OP is coming from.



  • Where did I say that? Felis catus aka the domestic cat would not be in North America. In fact, as I learned when doing research into their native habitat, domestic cats only exist because of artificial selection, so would not be anywhere. In regards to native species in North America, domestic cats hunt different species of animals compared to the native counterparts. They also tend to do so in smaller ranges, with higher numbers in smaller areas. For instance, bobcats tend to have ranges from about 3-8 square miles, with variations based on age, sex, and season. They hunt rabbits (and other rodents) and medium to large birds. Domestic cats hunt small rodents and birds, but live in much smaller areas with much higher numbers packed into that small area.

    I do agree that humans are the problem. Letting cats outside, not getting them fixed, essentially creating feral cat colonies is the problem. I don’t think anyone saying you should not let your cats outside is saying anything besides that.