instincts

I am fostering a kitten in my home. She is approximately 7 months old, and I have named her Panther because she resembles a black (actually gray) panther both in appearance and behavior. She is beautiful and quite pouncy.

Last Friday, I was video chatting with Immy when I heard some strange cat noises behind me. I turned around to find Panther and Dorito (my big boy cat) on my kitchen counter, Panther attempting to seduce Dori. *sigh* she was in heat.

So, over the last few days, I have watched her closely and observed the ridiculous behavior of a cat in heat. Everything she does is intently focused on one goal: to mate. She cries for attention, she struts around with her tail in the air, she darts toward the door anytime I head out, and she paws at windows in the night to get out to find her man. From time to time, I see glimpses of the kitten she was before, and it is as if that poor kitten is trapped at war with her biological impulse to mate. I can almost see in her eyes her desperation to be able to control her own behavior. Alas, she cannot. Her internal biology has total control of her external behavior.

I have thought to myself how happy I am that humans do not experience such hormonal slavery.

Then I saw it. On my way into work this morning, I watched a nicely dressed businesswoman cross the street ahead of me. She was met mid-crosswalk by an average-looking man. As she passed him, he turned. Without a blink, his entire torso was directed opposite his vector of motion. In a single, mindless motion, his head nodded and his eyes floated down the woman's suited figure and back up again before he turned back to face me and continue traversing the street.

I am convinced that in that moment, that man was abducted by his instinct to mate.

So, I ammend my previous thought: I am happy female humans do not experience such hormonal slavery. Men, in  fact, are like panthers in heat. Men are gross.
-mo