Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Back to Henri the Existential Cat

While googling what you should do if your dog ate chocolate, I was curious as to whether chocolate was poisonous for cats too. Google said:

"The toxic dose for cats is even lower than for dogs. However, cats are less prone to eating chocolate since they are unable to taste sweetness."

"Unable to taste sweetness."

If we were to get anthropocentric and pseudo-philosophical about this, that seems pretty miserable. Domestic cats are often seen as lethargic (since they sleep for so long) and just generally indifferent to life due to their constant inactivity. Now, they can't even taste sweetness, which we often crave because carbohydrates energize us and satisfy our brains' built-in reward system for when we provide it sustenance. Ain't that interesting.

3 comments:

Jac said...

I can just imagine Henri's next video: "I cannot taste sweetness, another constricting limitation set upon me by the gods. Although I have no desire to eat this sweet chocolate bar, maybe I should. Perhaps it will put me out of my suffering and misery. *Sigh*" Poor Henri, even though he has no want to eat chocolate I could definitely see him contemplating it in order to off himself, since he feels as if there is no reason for him to live. He feels intellectually superior to everyone, just as UM does. He and UM both consider (or might consider in my ideal Henri situation) putting themselves at risk just because they can. They are both spiteful in this sense.

Unknown said...

The cat's inability to taste sweets could be paralleled to Gregor Samsa's inability to eat. Cats are typically depicted as lonesome and depressed creatures, like we see in Henri the existential cat. In "The Metamorphasis," Gregor is so depressed and lost with himself that he is unable to eat for weeks. Just as a cat cannot detect/eat sweets, Gregor doesn't eat his nasty leftovers

master123 said...

Chickens can't detect sweetness either, just saying.