CALLLIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ivy Lane]

I just have to speak my feelings for second if you don't mind. Chimera breed as you are calling it would be a breed of cats created specifically to have a genetic mutation.......... since the chimera in Wikipedia is defined as a mutation. Having worked in a feline rescue for ten years at this point, the idea of encouraging breeds such as this , or the munchkins ............. breeding specifically for genetic mutation, really saddens me and weakens a species more often than not. I know it's been done for yeahs and years with other domestic animals ........ I just find it extremely repulsive when babies born along the way to create the new "breed" or born deformed and put to sleep because something went wrong and they are not the end result but something in between like the poor kittens we had that all had deformed legs a whole litter 3 kittens with front legs that just flopped and they walked on half their front leg while the other half hung there useless.......... the vet immediately wanted to euthanize them, someone with a huge heart saved them and loves them dearly, they were lucky and that was a good story.

All that said they are pixel cats in here and we menagerie every day. I would just do not wish to support that attitude in real life, the one of disposable pets.... In the US alone we euthanize 10, 000 cats and dogs every single day! I must admit that when i first started playing with KittyCats the disposiblity being built into the play was logic but also reflected a negative societal attitude that as a long term rescue worker i found disturbing , I still do and often in the dark question why i continue to promote and attitude that is the result of so many deaths, yet i still play.

I started a project, early on, to memorialize my kitties from real life, I learned that many people who are allergic to kitties love their kitties in here and are thrilled to be able to interact with an animal that they normally would have to run from in fear of their own lives. I learned that all new people hate to menagerie, that it is only with time you begin to accept it as a normal part of the breeding game. Most kittycats owners LOVE their pixel kitties and this is an important thing, a very important thing. So back to thoughts on my project.
The idea was small at first it was just for me to have my sweet real life babies in my life forever. Too bad once i own them i can not take them into a open grid sim that i own and keep them there perma petted and with me for as long as i own the open grid sim. Who knows maybe someday. The idea than grew, I want to create an art project with photos of my real life kitties past and present, and photos of my breedable kitties that i created to be their memorial. I decided this would be an awesome project to help with my feelings as a shelter worker, maybe i could get a local gallery to show the images and do a multidimensional event where the gallery shows the art in real life streams the party into second life and then a second life gallery has the images in world as well. The most important part would be awareness, education and fund raising for real life no kill rescues.

TY Rheaven for your post that has given me the courage to open up about this. After seeing your post and experiencing my feelings I am thinking this community does so much for others, so many charity events. Why not start a charity to support 'Real" no kill shelters? Why not support live kittycats with breedable KittyCatS ? Why not have a once a year event and have the whole community involved and even invite people who don't breed to support real life cats. In case you are wondering why I said "Real" no kill shelters , it's because you really have to know a shelter to know what it does and doesn't do. Where is't heart and funding coming from.

Any city , town or otherwise municipal dog pound, shelter, etc. what ever they call it, has a kill policy and a time limit. It's logical and financial. They must serve the town they can't support excessive amounts of animals, if they are ill, deformed or otherwise different (bad temper ) what ever usually 7-14 days is the limit that healthy adoptable animals after that they are euthanized if they don't find a home to make room for new ones. ASPCA by it's nature is not a true no kill organization, they put many animals to death daily, for the same reason as municipal animal control offices. Basically it's impossible to stay in business and not kill animals. The only real non kill shelters i know are some privately run ones, the places where the people who run the place (volunteers) foster kitties themselves, many sick kitties actually get medical care , that is how i started working for Attleboro Friends of Cats INc. I had a sick kitty she was dying, I was told they might help me, and they did they saved my kitties life and i have spent many years paying that back and trying to do more to help. The lady who runs this organization often feeds , pays for medical care and nurses to health or loves them until they die in her arms. She is scared all over her arms from dealing with feral cats she traps for spay and neuter, and ones she takes home to nurse , I can not tell you how many times i have been on the phone with her when a feral kitty is old, can not live outdoors any more and so she brings it in her home, feeds it , loves it, teaches it some trust and then has her heart broken as it dies a natural death of old age having the best care she can give it. These are the people and the shelters we want to find and support.

I think it would be a wonderful movement, maybe all breedables communities could be involved in one day a year........ dogs, horses, rabbits, what ever else there is ( I only know and do KittyCatS). It won't stop all the killing, but it might just educate and inform people in real life about how serious breeding can be and that there is a responsibility to living creatures. I think most people i have met in this community feel this, know this and that is why they struggle with the menagerie.......... so why not another way to educate others, bring in the real life media , have an art show, people can show their real life kitties, their breedable pets............ and when a reporter asks the question " don't you think that menagerieing thousands of cats in virtual breeding supports the negative idea of disposable real life animals? " We can say most humans at this stage in evolution recognize the difference between a pixel world and a real world. That is why we don"t just breed and pretend there is no problem in real life, but we educate, bring awareness to real life issues and support no kill shelters finding a positive solution to negative real life attitudes. Especially here in second life where we constantly recognize that there is a real person behind every avatar, or there was until bots were allowed. We often talk about respect for each other, in a virtual world and in reality in the same way, that anonymity is not an excuse for cruelty. Morals are taught in our virtual world, one of the most important things taught is the division of the worlds, virtual and real and the only place that they connect is in side our hearts, minds and spirits. Many of us know what it means to live parallel lives, it's the nature of today's society to have multiple lives with one personality driving them. So many think that anonymity is a mask to hide behind and do those things in the darkest parts of their being, some believe that anonymity is protection against their fears, when neither of these things is true, a mask is just a false face........ not the truth, maybe you are better served exploring your id and accepting your self on all levels, just as a community we should embrace the real life issues we know exist and find a way to be positive about animal overpopulation. As a community we can make a difference, we have for so many other charities, why not one more for the pets we love?