I hope that's true. I adopted my current cat after his owner passed away. He's a senior and had digestive issues. I spent over a year struggling to get him to eat, spending hundred of dollars on food he refused to eat and multiple trips to the vet to find the problem. The only food he reliably eats is this prescription $5/can specialty food. But he loves me so I do it for him.
Seniors know how lucky they are to be adopted. I adopted my previous cat when he was 12 and had at least two homes already, one of which declawed him. He would bite my arm in the middle of the night to get me to move so he could lie next to me the way he likes. I had him for 3 years before cancer took him.
Iβm reading this next to my senior-but sprightly boycat. Took him on at 10yo, as he was killing the family he was with (allergies) and he was overeating (multiple pet household, and heβs a greedy thief). Heβs a lump still, but much slimmer and he gets lots of fusses here.
Our pets are *dependent* members of our families, and I think this is what the cultβs leaders are missing.
And now I am compelled to share again the source of my pen name, Hyder and Rip from the 1962 episode of the Twilight Zone, The Hunt. Hyderβs empathy for his hound dog Rip saved him from being talked into walking straight into hell.
Hyder was an old country geezer who had conventional beliefs. There was a pastor at his house which should have clued him in to the fact that he was, in fact, dead. Especially when they started carrying out a coffin. He followed them until they disappeared and he found himself at a gate. The gatekeeper greeted him by name and said they had been waiting for him and to come on in. Hyder finally began to realize he was dead and asked the gatekeeper if that was Elysian Fields beyond the gate. When Hyder started to walk in with Rip the gatekeeper stopped them saying dogs werenβt allowed. Hyder pointing up the dirt road continuing along the fence and asked,βwhatβs up that way?β The gatekeeper said thatβs Eternity Road, you donβt want to go that wayβ. The gatekeeper tried several ploys to entice him eventually saying βjust leave Rip here and Iβll sneak him in after darkβ Hyder replied, β No, you canβt do that, it would hurt Ripβs feelings, make him think heβs not wanted! Iβd rather walk Eternity Road with Rip than go heaven without my best friendβ or more precisely, to hurt my best friend.
An angel eventually catches up to Hyder and Rip to escort him back to the βrealβ heaven. Hyder asks why the gatekeeper said Rip wasnβt allowed the angel replies if the Rip had gotten his nose through that gate he would have smelled the sulfer and warned Hyder. βThat devil, he doesnβt give up. He can talk people into walking into hell with their eyes wide open but he canβt fool a dog.β
Hyder didnβt have the sharpest mind. In fact, he was remarkably slow on the uptake(being dead, the gatekeeper NOT being St Peter!) But he didnβt just love his dog and want to stay with him, he valued empathy and thatβs what saved him from hell (which he certainly believed in).
I donβt believe in heaven or hell and any angel whoβs never meet a dog willing to drag him him into a hell for a piece of bacon has too limited a life experience to guide anyone anywhere. But I value empathy highly and believe more of it would keep a lot us out of trouble so I love this story.
Have you tried making cat food? I make it for my oldest boy. It's all he'll eat now.I think I would have lost him without it. Here's the ingredient list. The vet gave me suggestions and approval when I raised the topic.
500 g duck legs or chicken legs or beef
50 g blueberries
100 g apple
200 g pumpkin or broccoli
2 eggs
2 eggshells finely ground (calcium suppliment)
four small handfuls rice, barely palm size.
2 fish oil capsules or 200 g fish (preferred sardines in water or salmon.)
100 g finely chopped kelp
500 g duck or chicken liver (the last two are for supplying taurine.)
I use a large wok for this. But a stock pan works too. Boil the meat on medium heat until tender. Use as much water as you can for this stage. It will boil down. When the meat is cooked remove and allow to cool. While the meat is cooking I roast a small pumpkin. You can use packed pumpkin if you wish. in the broth that is formed add chopped apple, blueberries, liver, crushed eggshells, fish oil and rice. You can rehydrate the kelp for a few minutes first if you want to. Chop the kelp and add. Strip the meat from the bones. When the rice has partially cooked add the meat back into the mixture.Remember to put the bones back into the mixture after you strip the cooked meat to extract as many nutrients as possible. Allow to cook on low heat for about an hour. When the pumpkin has cooled scoop it into a dish and mix the eggs into it. Add slowly to the hot mixture. Temper it if you think that is needed. Remove from heat after 1 hour and use a masher to break down the large chunks into a smoother consistentancy and allow up to another hour at low heat. This takes about three hours to cook and about two hours to cool. Remove and discard the bones after it is cool. I feed four cats this amount twice a day for a week. Freeze the portion you are not using and defrost the day before needed. Mind you that's not counting the ones not on a special diet that insist on a taste as well. I hope it helps if you try it. As far as cost that depends on your area. I am in China and it costs me about 50 RMB(About 8 USD). In the states I estimate it would probably run me about 30οΌ40 dollars depending on how much I can buy in bulk. I tend to buy a large box of blueberry fresh and freeze them until needed.
It's like making Carolina hash. The finished product has a thick gruel like consistentancy. Remember to add no seasonings.
Well, sometimes it's EASIER to be kind to animals. Still, if a person treated pets really well, I feel able to trust them better than cold-hearted people.
"The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out, in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste."
Indeed. I recently learned that Mark Twain and Robert Green Ingersoll had met and were good friends. Somehow, I wasn't horribly surprised. How neat would it have been to be able to sit in on a conversation between the two of them!
Further Thought: I LOVE my cats. As stated elsewhere, we have four of 'em, each with their own personality and how they and I interact. They lighten my life, make me smile and laugh and just make things BETTER. I can't escape the feeling that those stuck in that stupid cult feel much the same about their pets.
And that the leaders of that stupidity want to deprive their congregants of their beloved animal companions tells me that what they want is 100% of their attention and obedience.
I have long been baffled by the things people are willing to believe, as well as their willingness to delegate their thinking to the clergy. Evidently, this sect/cult has decided companion animals are evil, while naturally ignoring what Christians acting in the name of Christianity have done to their fellow humans.
Heartless. Actually, heartless, cruel, and STUPID. If someone wanted to insist that I choose their dumb-ass dogma over my Spooky, Garfield, Mandy, and Tux (all wonderful and silly puddy-cats), I would show them the door - forcibly (and gladly!) if necessary.
Hemant has it right when he calls this yet another control vector, because it is, and it deserves to be outed loudly.
It sounds like the elders looked the other way for a while so that they could assert control now. The way the members are saying that thereβs no telling which rules theyβll enforce, shows that the leadership is intentionally unequally enforcing rules to keep the membership on eggshells as a way to stay in power.
I canβt recommend the Knitting Cult Lady more. She explains all those manipulation and control tactics really well.
This was exactly their intention. I used to belong to this cult and they are forever moving their goalposts to see who will submit. It's a way of continuously testing whos with them and whos not.
βThe greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.β Whether Gandhi ever said that or not, the truth remains that how the most vulnerable are treated by any group is a measure of their morality. Don't think for a minute that children, the physically disabled, or the elderly would fare any better than pets at the hands of a group with kind of heartlessness at its center. I HOPE this is a wake up call for members of this horrid cult.
There was a preliminary statistic shared at the international cultic studies association in 2025, showing 41% CSA from former members of this church. I was one of those stats. When we started the podcast, Get A Life, I never dreamt of the stories of CSA, SA and SRA that would drop on my lap. It's absolute horror. This pet ban fits right in with how they think
Youβll get used to us. Most of the people here are very nice and very intelligent. Thatβs why thereβs so many of us that are here every day. Itβs a community.
Welcome Cheryl! I am a former Mainline Protestant pastor, and this site gently eased me off of theism. I will always be thankful to Hemant, Ben, Nogodz, and the crew at Friendly Athiest
I wonder why, exactly, they think that dogs and cats are unclean? Is it because they don't use toilets? Humans have only had indoor plumbing for a few thousand years, maximum, and it has only been widespread for a few centuries. What about outdoor pets? Barn cats, hunting and working dogs, cows, horses, chickens? All of those animals can be loved and give love, while not makingthe house "unclean". What about someone disabled who cannot function without their service dog?
The cruelty is the point. The power is all the leadership seeks. They want slaves who are beaten down, subjects to rule. They don't want to see any of their underlings as people with equal value.
Offhand guess? Because they lick butts. Honor cultures tend to have lots of rules about the butt and keeping food activities separated from cleaning activities. The old school discrimination against lefties may even come from the 'wipe and clean with the left, eat with the right' tradition from parts of Africa, middle east, and Asia.
Thatβs exactly what I was thinking. Cats and dogs donβt care what you think as they be the biological creatures that they are. Theyβre not ashamed of bodily functions. Do you know why dogs lick their balls if they are the type of dogs that have balls? Because they can!
Abandon your pet bc the preacher told you too? Abandon your guide dog & make your life miserable to honour the church? Sad, and another nail in the coffin of religious extremism.
Want to know how a person treats other people? Just look at how they treat their pets.
πΌπ π¦ππ’ π€ππ’ππ ππππ€ π πππ, πππ πππ£π βππ€ βπ π‘ππππ‘π π πππ‘.
-- Robert A. Heinlein
I hope that's true. I adopted my current cat after his owner passed away. He's a senior and had digestive issues. I spent over a year struggling to get him to eat, spending hundred of dollars on food he refused to eat and multiple trips to the vet to find the problem. The only food he reliably eats is this prescription $5/can specialty food. But he loves me so I do it for him.
These aren't just animals. They are FAMILY. You know it and I know it. The asshats running that cult either don't know it or want to ignore that fact.
My wife and I have adopted dogs from shelters for almost forty-five years. I understand and appreciate what you're doing.
We've had 4 dogs, 3 lived to 15 and the 4th is 6. We've decided only to adopt seniors going forward.
Seniors know how lucky they are to be adopted. I adopted my previous cat when he was 12 and had at least two homes already, one of which declawed him. He would bite my arm in the middle of the night to get me to move so he could lie next to me the way he likes. I had him for 3 years before cancer took him.
Iβm reading this next to my senior-but sprightly boycat. Took him on at 10yo, as he was killing the family he was with (allergies) and he was overeating (multiple pet household, and heβs a greedy thief). Heβs a lump still, but much slimmer and he gets lots of fusses here.
Our pets are *dependent* members of our families, and I think this is what the cultβs leaders are missing.
I had a cat who lived past 20. She went during lockdown, and she's still my phone picture.
My phone picture is my wife of 54 years. Her phone picture is her cat. π
I think I'd get on with you guys just fine! If you'd have a mere sexegenerian.
Youβll never get to heaven by being nice!
And now I am compelled to share again the source of my pen name, Hyder and Rip from the 1962 episode of the Twilight Zone, The Hunt. Hyderβs empathy for his hound dog Rip saved him from being talked into walking straight into hell.
Hell doesnβt sound like a nice place in any case. Less boring than heaven, but still, not nice.
Hyder was an old country geezer who had conventional beliefs. There was a pastor at his house which should have clued him in to the fact that he was, in fact, dead. Especially when they started carrying out a coffin. He followed them until they disappeared and he found himself at a gate. The gatekeeper greeted him by name and said they had been waiting for him and to come on in. Hyder finally began to realize he was dead and asked the gatekeeper if that was Elysian Fields beyond the gate. When Hyder started to walk in with Rip the gatekeeper stopped them saying dogs werenβt allowed. Hyder pointing up the dirt road continuing along the fence and asked,βwhatβs up that way?β The gatekeeper said thatβs Eternity Road, you donβt want to go that wayβ. The gatekeeper tried several ploys to entice him eventually saying βjust leave Rip here and Iβll sneak him in after darkβ Hyder replied, β No, you canβt do that, it would hurt Ripβs feelings, make him think heβs not wanted! Iβd rather walk Eternity Road with Rip than go heaven without my best friendβ or more precisely, to hurt my best friend.
An angel eventually catches up to Hyder and Rip to escort him back to the βrealβ heaven. Hyder asks why the gatekeeper said Rip wasnβt allowed the angel replies if the Rip had gotten his nose through that gate he would have smelled the sulfer and warned Hyder. βThat devil, he doesnβt give up. He can talk people into walking into hell with their eyes wide open but he canβt fool a dog.β
Hyder didnβt have the sharpest mind. In fact, he was remarkably slow on the uptake(being dead, the gatekeeper NOT being St Peter!) But he didnβt just love his dog and want to stay with him, he valued empathy and thatβs what saved him from hell (which he certainly believed in).
I donβt believe in heaven or hell and any angel whoβs never meet a dog willing to drag him him into a hell for a piece of bacon has too limited a life experience to guide anyone anywhere. But I value empathy highly and believe more of it would keep a lot us out of trouble so I love this story.
My main takeaway from that episode is raccoons can kill dogs by drowning them!
Great episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GbS9bO_UFo
I wouldn't want to go to any heaven that accepted only those who weren't very nice. ;)
Well then we donβt have to worry about the Christian heaven. Itβs full of Christians, Popes, saints, martyrs, evangelical, pastors and priests,
Bold of you to assume we're all looking to go there...
Purrfect!
Have you tried making cat food? I make it for my oldest boy. It's all he'll eat now.I think I would have lost him without it. Here's the ingredient list. The vet gave me suggestions and approval when I raised the topic.
500 g duck legs or chicken legs or beef
50 g blueberries
100 g apple
200 g pumpkin or broccoli
2 eggs
2 eggshells finely ground (calcium suppliment)
four small handfuls rice, barely palm size.
2 fish oil capsules or 200 g fish (preferred sardines in water or salmon.)
100 g finely chopped kelp
500 g duck or chicken liver (the last two are for supplying taurine.)
I use a large wok for this. But a stock pan works too. Boil the meat on medium heat until tender. Use as much water as you can for this stage. It will boil down. When the meat is cooked remove and allow to cool. While the meat is cooking I roast a small pumpkin. You can use packed pumpkin if you wish. in the broth that is formed add chopped apple, blueberries, liver, crushed eggshells, fish oil and rice. You can rehydrate the kelp for a few minutes first if you want to. Chop the kelp and add. Strip the meat from the bones. When the rice has partially cooked add the meat back into the mixture.Remember to put the bones back into the mixture after you strip the cooked meat to extract as many nutrients as possible. Allow to cook on low heat for about an hour. When the pumpkin has cooled scoop it into a dish and mix the eggs into it. Add slowly to the hot mixture. Temper it if you think that is needed. Remove from heat after 1 hour and use a masher to break down the large chunks into a smoother consistentancy and allow up to another hour at low heat. This takes about three hours to cook and about two hours to cool. Remove and discard the bones after it is cool. I feed four cats this amount twice a day for a week. Freeze the portion you are not using and defrost the day before needed. Mind you that's not counting the ones not on a special diet that insist on a taste as well. I hope it helps if you try it. As far as cost that depends on your area. I am in China and it costs me about 50 RMB(About 8 USD). In the states I estimate it would probably run me about 30οΌ40 dollars depending on how much I can buy in bulk. I tend to buy a large box of blueberry fresh and freeze them until needed.
It's like making Carolina hash. The finished product has a thick gruel like consistentancy. Remember to add no seasonings.
Edit: to add recipe instruction.
I did similar in Scandinavia last year. And my middle child got her cat back again after three weeks on the run.
Old Bob knew the score.
He sure as hell did. Man knew whereof he spoke on a LOT of different topics, and I shudder at what he'd think of the current situation. π
Exercise for the reader: Who would he point to as the Nehemiah Scudder equivalent?
You get ONE GUESS, and I don't think you have to work very hard at that guess.
π―
'Animals are my friends. And I don't eat my friends.'
--George Bernard Shaw
Uh...okay? This isn't a chat about veganism, but you do you?
Well, sometimes it's EASIER to be kind to animals. Still, if a person treated pets really well, I feel able to trust them better than cold-hearted people.
"The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go his heaven, not man's."
-- Mark Twain, from "The Lowest Animal."
If there are no dogs, it's not heaven. Same for cats!
Also Twain: βHeaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out, and your dog would go in.β
A 3rd from him...
"The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out, in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste."
-- Twain, again from "The Lowest Animal."
Also Mark Twain: https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mark-twain-cats-9-5c88c3dd86fe6__700.jpg
Great quote! I thank you and QotD thanks you! π
You can't miss with Twain. :)
Indeed. I recently learned that Mark Twain and Robert Green Ingersoll had met and were good friends. Somehow, I wasn't horribly surprised. How neat would it have been to be able to sit in on a conversation between the two of them!
Animals are atheists and are far more savvy than those in thrall of religion.
Further Thought: I LOVE my cats. As stated elsewhere, we have four of 'em, each with their own personality and how they and I interact. They lighten my life, make me smile and laugh and just make things BETTER. I can't escape the feeling that those stuck in that stupid cult feel much the same about their pets.
And that the leaders of that stupidity want to deprive their congregants of their beloved animal companions tells me that what they want is 100% of their attention and obedience.
Fuck that.
I have long been baffled by the things people are willing to believe, as well as their willingness to delegate their thinking to the clergy. Evidently, this sect/cult has decided companion animals are evil, while naturally ignoring what Christians acting in the name of Christianity have done to their fellow humans.
Does this sect promote shooting dogs in gravel pits?
You wouldn't be thinking of a certain former Interior Secretary, would you? ππ
DHS Secretary.
Right. Sorry about that. [shrug] She's STILL an asshat, though, never mind a dog murderer!
She's an asshat, a dog murderer, AND a goat murderer. IMO, she needs to be staked out on iceberg headed south.
You mean like on a small iceberg sent from Svalbard or Greenland?
Perfect.
Minor quibble: Dogkillah was Sec of Homeland Security, not Interior. Interior is Doug Burgam. Former guv of ND.
Former? I must have missed the good news!
Kristi Noem got shown the door a while back, FSM be praised!
Oh, I imagined it was a dog shooting back.
Or will she?
πππ‘β ππ π€ππ‘βππ’π‘ ππππππππ, ππππ ππππππ πππ ππβππ£π π€πππ πππ πππ ππππππ πππ ππ ππ£ππ; ππ’π‘ πππ ππππ ππππππ π‘π ππ ππ£ππ β π‘βππ‘ π‘ππππ ππππππππ.
-- Steven Weinberg
Heartless. Actually, heartless, cruel, and STUPID. If someone wanted to insist that I choose their dumb-ass dogma over my Spooky, Garfield, Mandy, and Tux (all wonderful and silly puddy-cats), I would show them the door - forcibly (and gladly!) if necessary.
Hemant has it right when he calls this yet another control vector, because it is, and it deserves to be outed loudly.
I had a tux. He even had a cummerbund. He spent his entire life on this property; he's buried in the spot he was born.
Tux kitties is NEAT KITTIES!
Aw! I work at a retail store and someone had a little tuxie kitten in their jacket and she was *so* sweet and well-behaved!!
Ever come across a post, read the headline, and think, "nope"?
Yup.
At least once a day, anymore.
βTheyβre eating the dogs! Theyβre eating the cats!β - a very low IQ person
now, THAT's Funny.....Oh Lowered
It sounds like the elders looked the other way for a while so that they could assert control now. The way the members are saying that thereβs no telling which rules theyβll enforce, shows that the leadership is intentionally unequally enforcing rules to keep the membership on eggshells as a way to stay in power.
I canβt recommend the Knitting Cult Lady more. She explains all those manipulation and control tactics really well.
This was exactly their intention. I used to belong to this cult and they are forever moving their goalposts to see who will submit. It's a way of continuously testing whos with them and whos not.
You got OUT? Big-time CONGRATS! Even better that you're spreading the word about the PBCC. You freaking ROCK! π₯³π₯³π₯³
βThe greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.β Whether Gandhi ever said that or not, the truth remains that how the most vulnerable are treated by any group is a measure of their morality. Don't think for a minute that children, the physically disabled, or the elderly would fare any better than pets at the hands of a group with kind of heartlessness at its center. I HOPE this is a wake up call for members of this horrid cult.
"Secretive Christian sect." Bet Plymouth Brethren Christian Church covers up child sexual abuse within its ranks.
Or am I just cynical.
Nope, accurate. Another child rape and death cult.
Not cynical. Just recognizing the same pattern we have seen over and over again. (RCC, SBC, JW, LDS, etc.)
There was a preliminary statistic shared at the international cultic studies association in 2025, showing 41% CSA from former members of this church. I was one of those stats. When we started the podcast, Get A Life, I never dreamt of the stories of CSA, SA and SRA that would drop on my lap. It's absolute horror. This pet ban fits right in with how they think
You lie! You said they think!
/s
Not sure what you mean here?
I was teasing you. Thatβs what the /S was for.
If fundamentalists thought, they wouldnβt be fundamentalists. As Iβve always said, fundamentalists are 5% fun and 95% mental.
Sorry for the confusion.
New to Substack π€£π€£
Welcome to the Asylum: in both meanings of the word.
Youβll get used to us. Most of the people here are very nice and very intelligent. Thatβs why thereβs so many of us that are here every day. Itβs a community.
Welcome Cheryl! I am a former Mainline Protestant pastor, and this site gently eased me off of theism. I will always be thankful to Hemant, Ben, Nogodz, and the crew at Friendly Athiest
Considering their attitude towards pets, I think it's rather likely they have a literal body or two under their church's floorboards.
This is very true!!
Disgusting. Hugging my cat when I read this.
I wonder why, exactly, they think that dogs and cats are unclean? Is it because they don't use toilets? Humans have only had indoor plumbing for a few thousand years, maximum, and it has only been widespread for a few centuries. What about outdoor pets? Barn cats, hunting and working dogs, cows, horses, chickens? All of those animals can be loved and give love, while not makingthe house "unclean". What about someone disabled who cannot function without their service dog?
The cruelty is the point. The power is all the leadership seeks. They want slaves who are beaten down, subjects to rule. They don't want to see any of their underlings as people with equal value.
πΌ π€πππππ π€βπ¦, ππ₯πππ‘ππ¦, π‘βππ¦ π‘βπππ π‘βππ‘ ππππ πππ πππ‘π πππ π’ππππππ?
Offhand guess? Because they lick butts. Honor cultures tend to have lots of rules about the butt and keeping food activities separated from cleaning activities. The old school discrimination against lefties may even come from the 'wipe and clean with the left, eat with the right' tradition from parts of Africa, middle east, and Asia.
Iβm a left-handed demon and I love cats more than most people πββ¬
Thatβs exactly what I was thinking. Cats and dogs donβt care what you think as they be the biological creatures that they are. Theyβre not ashamed of bodily functions. Do you know why dogs lick their balls if they are the type of dogs that have balls? Because they can!
They see other people as the shit their money grows in.
Opposed to pets is a red flag for some mental health issues....just look.at the current US president, for example.
They will get my puppie when they pries my cold dead fingers off his leash.
Yes, you and anyone with an ounce of humanity. So what does it say about those who WILL "eliminate" their pet because some preacher said so?
It says they are monsters.
Calling John Wick.
Abandon your pet bc the preacher told you too? Abandon your guide dog & make your life miserable to honour the church? Sad, and another nail in the coffin of religious extremism.