Throw the parents in...

I can't believe this?

They knew their child was going to throw that ragdoll of a trusting kid-safe cat into the pool. And they thought it was cute. And when he or she sets a cat on fire one day for giggles, we'll all be blaming the kid, and sympathizing with the poor, poor parents.

If I had given any intention of doing something like this, my parents would have been a solid wall between that pool and myself.

When I was a kid, my dad was what is now called an AI technician but back then was called a breeding technician. Yep. He made baby cows. And I tagged along. The paws of kittens would accumulate lime in the barns. I would try to wash them off. The kittens were understandably distressed by this. I was trying to help them, but I was reprimanded for being cruel when they mewed their distress at having paws dipped in a milk can of water to soak off the balls of lime. Another time, I was mimicking the mews of kittens near the cow stantions as my dad tossed down hay from the mow. He thought I was picking on them (I guess I was a good mimic), and yelled at me to stop. I feel in both of these cases my parents misunderstood the situation (which is probably why I remember them so clearly)... BUT...what impressed me then and now was that they were teaching me that distressing animals is incredibly wrong. We might kill them. We might milk them. We might eat them. We need to examine whether or not these things are wrong. But terrifying an animal and jeopardizing its life for fun requires no examination. It is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Amazing how fast they dropped that camera when it was the toddler who ended up in the water. It appears it is not so funny when it's a little human instead of a little cat.