What makes a good cat guardian?

Humility and a certain knowledge that we, the people on the planet, are not special but just like any other animal trying to survive, is the sort of mentality that is more likely to engender good cat guardianship. Armed with that attitude you are bound to respect the domestic cat and if you respect the cat you will treat the cat well and on an even footing.

It may surprise the very few people who will read this that I consider my cats as equal to me. We are in an equal relationship. It is balanced. We have an equal say in matters.

At the other end of the spectrum, it is the arrogant and ignorant person who thinks incorrectly that he is special who is most likely to hate and/or mistreat cats.

This may be one factor why women are more likely to like cats. It is still very much a man's world so women are more likely to know what it is like to be subservient and cats are subservient. There is an automatic empathy.

On the basis that humility and an acknowledgment of humankind's many flaws promotes good cat caretaking, it may be why Confucianism does not encourage good cat caretaking as it focuses on the human and human relations and tends to ignore the animal. Confucianism promotes people to a special status and the animal to a secondary status. This philosophy is prevalent in mainstream Asian society and that is where cats both domestic and wild are more likely to be persecuted.

This is not a criticism of Asian society. Western society is a mess so people in the West have no right to criticize people in the East.  Western society has lost any moral high ground or kudos that it might have had.

It is just that there is no animal welfare law in China and they eat the domestic cat in parts of China and Vietnam as two examples. Tiger bone wine is an abomination and idiotic. But is kills the tiger, particularly the Bengal tiger in neighboring countries.

Confucianism is too old a philosophy to be valid in the modern world. It is outdated but the Chinese government is apparently promoting it. The modern religion is to worship nature and to ensure that we protect it rather than abuse it as is currently the case