I’ve often thought we could learn useful attitudes about life from various animals.
I have learned a great deal from my dogs. I have learned for example, that I should always look carefully at the place I am about to sit down. I don’t always turn around three times like they do – and sometimes I end up sitting on things I shouldn’t. Maybe it’s not so silly to turn around three times before sitting down.
This video came across my FaceBook news feed today:
Here’s what struck me:
I know people like this. This kitty is getting very annoyed that the box is not what he wants it to be. He will NOT adapt.
You know what most dogs would do given the same situation? They would do one of two things:
- Sit in it anyways and not worry that it isn’t what they thought it would be.
- Play a different game – like toss-the-box, or shred-the-box. When the game was done, they’d probably lay down on the shredded remains and be just as happy.
This has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with attitude. What would you do?
I laughed pretty hard when the cat tried to sit in the tall box. At first, it looked like it might work, but… the events that followed were priceless.
And, as you point out, they were also exemplary.
In practice, I often get frustrated with a thing, then plot to conquer it. If the plots fail and the box conquers me, I look for another box.
After all, you can’t just go shredding a box. That’s a waste of a perfectly good box! I do spend an inordinate amount of time on trying to adapt to unfit boxes, though…