Julius’ obstinance has provoked my interest to collaborate with him, it will put a spin on the nature of relating to pets because, based on the readings and discussions that we have had in class, people tend to assume that pets will be cooperative because they are extensions of one’s self. There is an assumption that people can control their pets’ outcome/response in a collaborative work. My work with Julius will break that assumption because he is so unpredictable, moody, and stubborn that I never know what he will decide to do and not do.
I have been trying to study what he does through observation and I have some of it filmed, and I will post it at some point. I have been trying to learn more about what his interests are.
LIKES:
-to eat bugs and other animals, bring them home to torture/the “din” command which yields treats of all kinds/to be alone or in a room with others but to remain independent spatially/to “punish” anyone who tells him no by biting and clawing at their feet and legs as he chases them around while they’re walking/sleeping at the edge of the bed or his new up high nook/climbing through the air vent grate in the house to a spot under the house/to lay on window sills/freedom to come and go outside as he pleases/to run away from people on the street
DISLIKES:
-being held and mostly being petted unless he is too tired to care/when people tell him no/car noise/being inside of a car in a carrier (but does not mind being in a car in general)
Possible Project Idea:
Make maps of the places that Julius decides to go
He does not mind being in the car
He likes to be in the passenger front seat so that he can look
out the window
This project is not illegal
This project is able to be documented through film/pictures
/writing/visual maps, ie.
Google maps. Can use string to visualize it in a space
somewhere
Can chart the things that he finds interesting outside of the
window
If he decides that he is uninterested, he usually will sleep in
the back seat
The can be a queue to just keep on driving until he
wakes up
Can look for similarities in the things that interest him out
the window based on his posture and find out
more about what interests him visually
This is not a bad idea because cats are generally
fascinated by movement and so is Joules
He has done very well during long-distance car trips like
driving to my parents’ in Paso Robles
Could chart this on multiple days
Could learn more things about his moods based on
whichever days he seems down for the task
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