This morning while eating breakfast and playing Hearts on my computer I got to thinking why do we assign gender terms to things?

We refer to ships and aircraft as she.  Referring to an old sailboat one might say, 'She was yar.'

When we don't know the gender of a cat or a dog we tend to call the dog a he and a cat  a she.

When I play Hearts in the morning for some unknown reason I talk to the other players.  That might sound crazy but it's a game I played thousands of times in the military and it's my favorite computer card game and banter is part of the game.

I always think in my mind that the player on my left (West) is He.  Th player opposite me (North) is He.  But the player on my right (East) is She.  "I'll bet She has the 'b**ch' as opposed to the player on my left (West) 'He has the b**ch'.

Noel

 

46 minutes ago, birdguy said:

and a cat  a she

 

Not me or my family, cat is usually he. Most of our cats have been male, but we would still do it if that wasn't the case. It has to be one or the other, so it depends on the gender we are ourselves and a few other factors. 

Be thankful that we still only use two terms.

Edited April 14, 20215 yr by Christopher Low

51 minutes ago, martin-w said:

Not me or my family, cat is usually he.

We have 4 cats.  Two male and two female.  I invariably refer to all of them as she.

Noel

Edited April 14, 20215 yr by birdguy

Had 4 cats once. Jasper and Jerry Corky and Smarty. Two girls two boys. Boys were refered to as he, girls as she. Not sure why you callad your boys she.

Met my daughters friends German Shepard the other day, a rescue dog. Some evil person had mistreated it in the past. It was female but such a big strong masculine animal that I immediately referred to her as a lovely boy, before being corrected.

This lovely animal was frightened of men and tended to cower away from them. The wonderful thing was that when I put my hand out and spoke to her she came right over and licked my hand. My daughters friend was very surprised.

 

When I was in my teens we inherited a female German Shepherd from the people next door.  They adopted from the shelter but it had been abused and they couldn't handle it.  Her name was Lady.

It would cringe in a corner every time my Mom got out vacuum cleaner or a broom.  But eventually with nice treatment from us she got over it and became a very friendly pet.  Since we got it as a female and her name was Lady we all called her 'she'.  She and our Siamese cat became the best of friends.  Once she was on the front porch and saw a dog chasing our cat up the street and Lady took off after that dog and I guess she told the dog not to bother her friend again.

A year later I joined the Marine Corps and only saw lady when I was home on leave.  Mom and Dad kept her until she go so old she couldn't function anymore and they had to have her put away.  They wrote me that it was hard thing to do.

A few years ago we had a cat we adopted when we first moved to Roswell.  When she was 19 years old she developed terminal diabetes and could no control her bodily functions.  I took her to the vet to have her put down.  It was pretty sad.

A few months later we had the back door open and and a young Persian Blue cat walked in the back door and decided to stay.  She was pregnant and had four kittens.  We gave two away and kept two.  Then a year later another cat walked in the back door and stayed.  So now we have four cats, two males and two females all neutered.

We have a cat door in the door from the porch to the back yard so they can go out or come in at will so we don't need litter boxes.

I don't think we will have a dog anymore.  They are too high maintenance.  I don't want to pick up after them in the back yard.  Cats are low maintenance.  All you have to do is feed them and periodically clean up the feathers in the back porch where they bring in their catches.

Noel

 

Edited April 14, 20215 yr by birdguy

I tend to label animals as 'she' as well, and cars or planes or things like that. When the 20 year old Honda finally dies I would say 'she was a good car' 😎

11 hours ago, birdguy said:

I don't think we will have a dog anymore.  They are too high maintenance.  I don't want to pick up after them in the back yard.  Cats are low maintenance

 

Yep, I love all animals but taking a dog for a walk in all weathers, late at night, early morning and picking up poo isn't my idea of fun. My cat's indoors at the moment as we have only recently moved and its a rented place. He will be allowed outside again when we buy a house. 

I worked out yesterday that Ive had 9 cats, all fantastic animals. The guy we have now though is very intelligent, amazing animal. People assume that because a cat has a smaller brain than a dog that they're less intelligent, well it isn't necessarily so. Brain size isn't as important as many think. Whales and Elephants have bigger brains than we do but they aren't more intelligent. Brain size is also associated with body size.

In fact, dogs have 160 million neurons whereas a cat has 300 million neurons. So a higher neurological density. That's not a definitive argument for a cats superior intelligence but it is a better indicator than size. People are often fooled because dogs are pack animals and enjoy being told what to do by the pack leader, this is confused with intelligence. A cat on the other hand is not a pack animal and prefers to make YOU do what IT wants. Hence, they don't follow commands. 

Dogs of course will do anything for a treat and to please the pack leader. Cats on the other hand are impulsive and don't put up with frustrating periods for very long. Dogs have better social intelligence because they are pack animals but cats have been shown to solve harder cognitive problems. 

 

Cats RULE!!! 😃😼😼😼

Edited April 15, 20215 yr by martin-w

My cats favorite book? "How To Train Your Human". And they are really good at doing that. Cats do, indeed, rule.

30 minutes ago, W2DR said:

My cats favorite book? "How To Train Your Human". And they are really good at doing that. Cats do, indeed, rule.

 

Oh yes, quite astonishing how well my cat has me trained. And I'm not kidding. 😼

Haven't you heard of the word "it"?

 

May "it" be...

 

39 minutes ago, GHD said:

Haven't you heard of the word "it"?

 

 

And what would your wife, girlfriend or mother say if you callad them IT?

 

 

1 hour ago, Fielder said:

May "it" be...

 

That is my country but I don't care for the song, the visuals are New Zealand but the song is not, this is a good old New Zealand Song instead, Māori Culture:

 

51 minutes ago, Matthew Kane said:

That is my country but I don't care for the song, the visuals are New Zealand but the song is not, this is a good old New Zealand Song instead, Māori Culture:

 

I fondly remember driving from Auckland to Wellington, Lower Hutt. Think it might have been Mt Cook, but at one point we were above the clouds, stunning. And what a fascinating place Rotorua is too. Spent an afternoon at the house of a friend of my ex wife's grandmother, on the banks of Lake Rotorua. Maori family, or part Maori. He went down to the bottom of his garden and with geothermal steam, steamed us some vegetables. 🙂

Remember flying back to Auckland airport on a 146, and being astonished by the scenery. Beautiful country you have.