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Author Topic: Pets and Altars  (Read 4023 times)

Tom

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Pets and Altars
« on: September 12, 2016, 08:02:39 pm »
Since I've cleaned up my shrine/altar to Veles, my cat has been spending time sitting on the newly cleared out space, which actually hasn't been as much of a concern as I had feared. Previously, when the altar was less cluttered and in active use, my cat was very inquisitive and would poke around the altar and/or steal stuff from it.

When I cleaned up the altar, this time, she did do a little bit of this, but I took note of the items she seemed to target (her stealing the stick of holly I had on my altar right when I was watching was...um, yes, cat.) and made sure those were put away. I had the feeling that Veles wanted a bit more of an austere altar for the season, so this wasn't as much of a problem for me as it would've been before.

And I think my cat is now less prone to trying to play with candle flame. Or at least she isn't trying with this particular holder for tea lights. Her previous habit of doing this may have led to my altar being less used for a while as I had taken to lighting candles out of her reach.

How do your pets interact with the altars you have? Do you have particular issues where they make it difficult for you to have an altar set up in your household and how do you handle them? I'm particularly curious about your thoughts on food offerings. I don't really give food offerings as I haven't quite worked out a protocol for handling them that feels right to me, but I know animals can decide to eat the offerings sometimes.

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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2016, 04:53:27 am »
Quote from: Tom;196179
Since I've cleaned up my shrine/altar to Veles, my cat has been spending time sitting on the newly cleared out space, which actually hasn't been as much of a concern as I had feared. Previously, when the altar was less cluttered and in active use, my cat was very inquisitive and would poke around the altar and/or steal stuff from it.

When I cleaned up the altar, this time, she did do a little bit of this, but I took note of the items she seemed to target (her stealing the stick of holly I had on my altar right when I was watching was...um, yes, cat.) and made sure those were put away. I had the feeling that Veles wanted a bit more of an austere altar for the season, so this wasn't as much of a problem for me as it would've been before.

And I think my cat is now less prone to trying to play with candle flame. Or at least she isn't trying with this particular holder for tea lights. Her previous habit of doing this may have led to my altar being less used for a while as I had taken to lighting candles out of her reach.

How do your pets interact with the altars you have? Do you have particular issues where they make it difficult for you to have an altar set up in your household and how do you handle them? I'm particularly curious about your thoughts on food offerings. I don't really give food offerings as I haven't quite worked out a protocol for handling them that feels right to me, but I know animals can decide to eat the offerings sometimes.


House cat? If so I suspect she's bored and in need of entertainment. Mine ignores completely anything I do indoors now. When he was a kitten he had a fascination with candle flames but a singed nose taught him to keep well away.

I dispose of food offerings in the garden. I doubt he eats them but I know the wildlife does. That to me is as it should be.

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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2016, 06:15:11 pm »
Quote from: Tom;196179
How do your pets interact with the altars you have?


Mine's more of a shrine, but I had a brainwave and managed to set it up where the cats can't get at it.  Probably the only place in our entire apartment where they can't get at it, with the exception of the inside of a cupboard or drawer.

I've got a floor standing candelabra with a circular top, and a fairly large wooden bowl which had previously been used for pot pourri which I don't even like, really.  I can't currently burn candles in the candelabra because our apartment is really tiny so the only place for it to go is in a corner of the bedroom right by one of the curtains (drapes), so would be a fire hazard (plus, cats).  And the circular top is exactly the right size for the wooden bowl to sit in, and the cats can't get at the objects within.  Otherwise they would probably have great fun pushing said objects onto the floor and then around the floor until they made them vanish under some furniture!

However I don't currently do food offerings, either, so I'm afraid I can't comment on that part of your question, unfortunately.
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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2016, 01:31:14 pm »
Quote from: Tom;196179
How do your pets interact with the altars you have? Do you have particular issues where they make it difficult for you to have an altar set up in your household and how do you handle them? I'm particularly curious about your thoughts on food offerings. I don't really give food offerings as I haven't quite worked out a protocol for handling them that feels right to me, but I know animals can decide to eat the offerings sometimes.

 
My current working altar is a circular antique wooden minibar/hutch that I found on the curb. My cat isn't much of a jumper (she's a persian) but it is low enough that I think she could clear it if she really wanted to. So far she hasn't tried. What she does like, however, is for me to open the door on the side of it so that she can lurk inside. I've given up and just put a little rug in there for her, which means sometimes I'll look at my altar and see a smashed face goblin peering out at me.

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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2016, 01:48:20 pm »
Quote from: Mama Fortuna;196346
My current working altar is a circular antique wooden minibar/hutch that I found on the curb. My cat isn't much of a jumper (she's a persian) but it is low enough that I think she could clear it if she really wanted to. So far she hasn't tried. What she does like, however, is for me to open the door on the side of it so that she can lurk inside. I've given up and just put a little rug in there for her, which means sometimes I'll look at my altar and see a smashed face goblin peering out at me.
I can so picture that and it's adorable! I miss having a kitty around. Besides my fiancé being allergic, he absolutely hates cats. (tell me again why I agreed to marry someone who hates cats? Oh right. I love him. I guess.)
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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2016, 01:54:57 pm »
Quote from: missgraceless;196347
I can so picture that and it's adorable! I miss having a kitty around. Besides my fiancé being allergic, he absolutely hates cats. (tell me again why I agreed to marry someone who hates cats? Oh right. I love him. I guess.)

 
My cat was shaved for the summer, so she's even , too. I cannot say I would marry a cat hater, but that's simply because I refuse to marry, heh. Maybe you guys can just get dogs or guinea pigs?

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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2016, 01:58:24 pm »
Quote from: Mama Fortuna;196350
My cat was shaved for the summer, so she's even , too. I cannot say I would marry a cat hater, but that's simply because I refuse to marry, heh. Maybe you guys can just get dogs or guinea pigs?
We're actually working on getting a Doberman/rottie mix from a friend. She's bringing her over this afternoon to see how well she works with our roomie's dog, which I don't think should be a problem.  

I told him he can get the wolf hybrid he wants only if I can get a cat when we actually get our own place.  He wasn't too happy about that, haha.
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Tom

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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2016, 06:00:05 pm »
Quote from: Dynes Hysbys;196203
House cat? If so I suspect she's bored and in need of entertainment. Mine ignores completely anything I do indoors now. When he was a kitten he had a fascination with candle flames but a singed nose taught him to keep well away.

I dispose of food offerings in the garden. I doubt he eats them but I know the wildlife does. That to me is as it should be.

 
My cat is an house cat and yes, she is probably very bored and meows a lot at her human sometimes because she is in need of amusement. I see it as a good sign though since I've had her for a year and two months and at first she was too scared to come out of the bathroom while I was awake for about the first two to three months. So I've had to be very patient with her and spend time with her and now she's decided that yes, I am good human and a person to snuggle with.

(She was a shelter cat that was rescued from a hoarder's house.)

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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #8 on: September 20, 2016, 10:33:59 pm »
Quote from: Tom;196179
How do your pets interact with the altars you have? Do you have particular issues where they make it difficult for you to have an altar set up in your household and how do you handle them? I'm particularly curious about your thoughts on food offerings. I don't really give food offerings as I haven't quite worked out a protocol for handling them that feels right to me, but I know animals can decide to eat the offerings sometimes.

 
I keep my shrine/secondary altar on top of a low set of shelves behind the head of my bed, and yes, sometimes my cat, Portia, climbs on top of it, which is one reason I rarely burn candles there.

(My main altar is a section of the bathroom counter, since I do so much of my actual ritual work in the shower, and she shows no desire to climb on that. If she did, I'd be more worried about her getting into the pills on the other side of the counter...)

She prefers, however, to use the lowest shelf as a hiding spot whenever she feels threatened. I keep some incense and other supplies there, but I haven't noticed her trying to chew on any of it, so I'm fine with that.
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Snake-Bitten

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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2016, 01:23:38 pm »
Quote from: Tom;196179

How do your pets interact with the altars you have? Do you have particular issues where they make it difficult for you to have an altar set up in your household and how do you handle them?



As with nearly everything, acclimating cats to an altar is a process of trial and error. The best I've come up with is to set mine up high, and they don't seem to notice it. Incorporating a sacred space for your cat could be beneficial. The general rule of thumb is for everything you have to say "no" to, give them something that you can say "yes" to. For example, if you don't want your cat scratching your new couch, put their own furniture next to it. It's all about territory with them.

TheGreenWizard

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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #10 on: September 20, 2017, 04:19:10 pm »


Since I've cleaned up my shrine/altar to Veles, my cat has been spending time sitting on the newly cleared out space, which actually hasn't been as much of a concern as I had feared. Previously, when the altar was less cluttered and in active use, my cat was very inquisitive and would poke around the altar and/or steal stuff from it.

When I cleaned up the altar, this time, she did do a little bit of this, but I took note of the items she seemed to target (her stealing the stick of holly I had on my altar right when I was watching was...um, yes, cat.) and made sure those were put away. I had the feeling that Veles wanted a bit more of an austere altar for the season, so this wasn't as much of a problem for me as it would've been before.

And I think my cat is now less prone to trying to play with candle flame. Or at least she isn't trying with this particular holder for tea lights. Her previous habit of doing this may have led to my altar being less used for a while as I had taken to lighting candles out of her reach.

How do your pets interact with the altars you have? Do you have particular issues where they make it difficult for you to have an altar set up in your household and how do you handle them? I'm particularly curious about your thoughts on food offerings. I don't really give food offerings as I haven't quite worked out a protocol for handling them that feels right to me, but I know animals can decide to eat the offerings sometimes.

I have two rabbits who are inquisitive to everything I do. Generally, they can't reach the shrine in my bedroom so no problem there. However when I do meditations and such, I can't have them out because they will jump on me and break my trance. So... Into their cage they go.

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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #11 on: November 11, 2017, 02:00:03 am »
How do your pets interact with the altars you have? Do you have particular issues where they make it difficult for you to have an altar set up in your household and how do you handle them? I'm particularly curious about your thoughts on food offerings. I don't really give food offerings as I haven't quite worked out a protocol for handling them that feels right to me, but I know animals can decide to eat the offerings sometimes.

Unfortunately they do interact with my altar and it's never positive! My cats have:
*Urinated on my altar, (I fixed this by spraying it with special spray to discourage them, after a thorough cleaning!)
*Stolen food from my altar, (Fixed by putting the food in a narrow vessel which they could not reach down into.)
*Broken my sacred statues, (The solution was to repair them, they were handmaid and could not be replaced.)
*Messed with lit candles (I started using batter powered pool candles instead, for safety reasons!)

So yeah, the way my altar is set up is necessarily impacted by my pets. I can't have elaborate displays of valuable sacred objects or put out lots of large food offerings, for example.
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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #12 on: November 11, 2017, 02:24:46 am »

How do your pets interact with the altars you have? Do you have particular issues where they make it difficult for you to have an altar set up in your household and how do you handle them? I'm particularly curious about your thoughts on food offerings. I don't really give food offerings as I haven't quite worked out a protocol for handling them that feels right to me, but I know animals can decide to eat the offerings sometimes.

I think I've said this elsewhere, but generally speaking, I do not keep an altar.  And that is because for me, I feel too confined at a singular altar.  The whole idea stresses me out, honestly, and I get a very negative energy.  And really my practice is spread out through the house.  So I might do ritual work in the back yard where I've established a more permanent circle, or if I'm in the kitchen I have things there as well.  That being said, we do have pets and kids and nosy family members who like to snoop around.  Anything I don't care if they snoop around in I generally leave out, for instance my encyclopedia of herbs.  There's nothing in there that I really care if they see, so it's usually just left out on the kitchen shelf.  Other things such as ritual tools, or my tarot deck, stuff like that I don't want them messing with, are usually stashed away in my closet. 
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Re: Pets and Altars
« Reply #13 on: November 17, 2017, 09:49:08 pm »
Since I've cleaned up my shrine/altar to Veles, my cat has been spending time sitting on the newly cleared out space, which actually hasn't been as much of a concern as I had feared. Previously, when the altar was less cluttered and in active use, my cat was very inquisitive and would poke around the altar and/or steal stuff from it.

When I cleaned up the altar, this time, she did do a little bit of this, but I took note of the items she seemed to target (her stealing the stick of holly I had on my altar right when I was watching was...um, yes, cat.) and made sure those were put away. I had the feeling that Veles wanted a bit more of an austere altar for the season, so this wasn't as much of a problem for me as it would've been before.

And I think my cat is now less prone to trying to play with candle flame. Or at least she isn't trying with this particular holder for tea lights. Her previous habit of doing this may have led to my altar being less used for a while as I had taken to lighting candles out of her reach.

How do your pets interact with the altars you have? Do you have particular issues where they make it difficult for you to have an altar set up in your household and how do you handle them? I'm particularly curious about your thoughts on food offerings. I don't really give food offerings as I haven't quite worked out a protocol for handling them that feels right to me, but I know animals can decide to eat the offerings sometimes.
My altar has a dragon statue, seashell offering bowls, my pendulum, incense, crystals, my tiny cauldron, candles and books. It sits atop a desk. Next to my altar are two huge cans of organized herbs.
My familiar is a small, golden/platinum carin terroir, mixed with chihuahua and Aerodale terroir.
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