The comment about "gutting" the story and "throwing it against a chain link fence" was just uncalled for. Are making some kind of "joke" about murdering cats? It seemed pretty out of place, so I'm assuming that was your intention.

Trend or not, I know lots of straight guys both single and married that have cats. It may not be a trend, but it certainly is not a rare phenomenon. What's the big deal?

You're right, Blacksheep! The story should have been tied in a burlap sack, and tossed in the river.

If you read Shafer's columns regularly on this topic, you'd know that he doesn't think the cat thing is a big deal at all. What he's railing against is bogus "trend" journalism, something I can sympathize with: I spot about one a day in my own local paper.

But you don't even need to be a regular reader to know this, since he spells out his beef pretty clearly in the column.

No wonder "trend" stories can get away with straying so far from their original point. As you have so aptly demonstrated, there are always readers who won't remember the original point.

The comment about the chain link fence was still gross and stupid.

And yes, I got the point of Shafer's article.

Sorry, I should clarify that in the second part of my original post, I was commenting on the original article, not Shafer's article.

Ah. Sorry. Genuinely. In that case, my comment was unnecessarily mean-spirited.

I see comments all the time on the fray like that, where the frayster has completely missed the central point of the article. And they annoy me. I must have been all primed up.

*bows out gracefully*

No problem, I didn't make it very clear in my original post!