An Analysis of "It Doesn't Matter Whether the Cat Is Black or White, as Long as It Catches Mice It's a Good Cat"

Stated more bluntly, this saying means that catching mice is the sole criterion for being a good cat. However, just as some cats are prodigies that can chase mice all over the street before they're even as big as a mouse, yet once you bring them home and pamper them to full size, they become useless; some cats are only effective in their own little corner -- not just mice, but field mice and squirrels too, anything remotely related to mice is doomed, but take them out of their corner and they're useless again; some cats' relationship with mice may even depend on the weather -- when the moon is full they get fierce with mice, but when the moon wanes they wane too. Does there exist a super-cat that can catch mice at any time, any place, under any circumstances? If not, then what exactly is the standard for "catching mice"? Under this standard, is there only one cat that qualifies? If many cats qualify -- all good cats -- but in practice you can't keep them all and must choose, you'll need new criteria.

For example, if two cats can both catch mice -- one black, one white -- and you can only choose one, when you can't have both, with only one choice to make, which is it -- black or white? In this situation, not arguing actually becomes the precondition for arguing. Those who prefer white will say the black one only caught small mice in the past, was cruel, not environmentally friendly, and unsustainable; those who prefer black will say the white one just tosses mice aside after catching them, then sneaks off to steal fish and flirts with the neighbor's cat -- treacherous through and through. The real-world quarreling will inevitably be endless. Furthermore, once this criterion becomes the sole standard for judging whether a cat is good or bad, in order to become a good cat, an infinite variety of tricks will be invented around this single standard. These tricks will quickly render the standard ambiguous, until ultimately there is effectively no standard at all.

More importantly, if you already have one at home -- say, a black cat -- people always think the neighbor's food tastes better. Especially after getting used to the black cat, one glance at the neighbor's white cat brings a sense of novelty. If the neighbor happens to be an extraordinary braggart, claiming their cat catches one thousand several hundred mice a day, even insinuating that your black cat actually swiped its catches from their mouse pile, what do you do? Option One: out-brag them. Option Two: clone their cat. Option Three: go home and paint the black cat with lime. Of course, there are other options not mentioned here.

In short, whether catching mice can be indiscriminately associated with "good cat" in a necessary correspondence -- this question is absolutely not as simple as it sounds. And whether the time has now come when we must distinguish between black and white is probably also a question that can no longer be avoided.