End of the road for Butthead the Cat

The vet at the animal shelter told me today that Butthead tested positive for FIV. That makes him a threat to other cats, so he'll be euthanized.

I have some mixed feelings about this. He would have eventually lost his immune system and died of something or other.

But if I hadn't stuck my foot out that evening, and he hadn't bitten me, he'd still be wandering free around the neighborhood right now... possibly, of course, to infect other cats.

So one thing leads to another and another and now he's going to die for having done nothing except be a sick cat.

I had a conversation the other night with a couple of friends about the word 'deserve,' as it is sometimes used in the context, "he didn't deserve to have that happen to him." That is such a fundamentally flawed concept - that people (or animals) 'deserve' or 'don't deserve' some random turn of events that there's no point in us even making mention of it. Nobody 'deserves' anything, in that sense of the word. It just happens (or it just doesn't).

I saw two people badly hurt in a motorcycle accident the other day. Did they deserve it? No. Did they not deserve it? No. Those are equally invalid questions.

Buddhism teaches us to have compassion for all sentient beings. I have compassion for most, and that's the best I've been able to do so far. I have compassion for dogs and cats, but not for cattle and pigs - at least not enough to stop eating pepper steak and barbecue.

So I have compassion for Butthead and I feel empathy for his confusion at being locked in a cage in a strange place away from his familiar surroundings and facing certain death (if it hasn't happened already). In fact, being someone who was picked up and moved a lot as a kid makes the loss of familiar surroundings especially resonate with me.

Plus, because I like familiarity and am comfortable with it, the knowledge that I won't see ol' Butthead again is painful. That's not compassion for a sentient being... that's attachment, which is a dangerous place to be, since we're not guaranteed anything we have today will still be with us tomorrow.