I've had a really hard time this month coming up with an article. Besides that, we've had a recent tragedy in our family. Our cat, Marty, that has been with us for almost 7 years now died a tragic death this week. I won't go into the details, but I have to admit that it affected me much more than I ever imagined. I've had to cry everytime I sit down at the computer because I would always have to move him off of my chair before starting to work. It's been hard not having him sitting on my papers or walking across the keyboard every once in awhile. Anyway....back to Spanish!
In light of what happened this week, I made an interesting discovery. I have grown up hearing about a cat and its nine lives...there's even a cat food named after this idea. What is quite interesting is that in Mexico, cats are only known to have seven. Granted, this is not the most important discovery in my life, but it is quite curious. (It's kind of like their week having 8 days.)
Of course, after several days when I could actually talk about cats again, my husband and I discussed this strange language or culture difference. We came to the conclusion that for a cat to have been born in Mexico instead of the United States that it lost two lives when it realized where it was. In general, life for pets (at least in the area where my husband is from) is quite different from the average pet in the United States. Both my husband and I have always had family pets, but their place in our lives is quite different. Here, our family pets are considered to be an important part of the family (in fact our dog is often referred to as our little brother). In Mexico, they are often well-cared for and even loved, but do not hold such a prominent place in the family.
Another culture difference I learned early on when my husband and I were dating had to do with this importance of pets in the family. Like I mentioned before, we have a dog that has been in the family almost twenty years now. He is a special part and considered an adopted member of the family. (In fact, sometimes my sister and I swear that my mom worries more about him than she does us.) Once, when my husband and I were first dating, some expression my husband made reminded of our beloved Scamp. I mentioned that to him, and he was VERY offended. In my husband's culture, it is very offensive to be referred to as any kind of animal...even if that animal is a special family pet. This was something very foreign to me, as in the culture I was raised in this was not meant to offend. Later, I remember hearing an American Spanish student referring to his friend as a dog...I'm sure that he was just joking (as is normal in our culture) and not trying to deeply offend his buddy.
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