Categorical Aperitif

This morning's local news:

TITUSVILLE - An argument between two grade school-aged boys resulted in one putting the other's cat in the dryer, killing the family pet, Titusville Police said.

An 11-year-old Titusville boy was charged Wednesday with cruelty to animals and burglary after detectives say he admitted entering a home in the same neighborhood and placing the family cat in the dryer and turning it on.

"That was his way of getting back at them," detective Rob Candler said.

Fuzzy, an 8-year-old brown, longhair Himalayan, likely died from the combination of the dryer's heat and its tumbling motion, Candler said. The cat had burn marks on its face and ears and singed fur and whiskers.

So: is turning an innocent animal's last minutes of life into a terrifying, agonizing hell for the sake of getting revenge against another person marginally better or marginally worse than torturing the animal to death for your own sick amusement? I'm honestly not sure.

As Bill Hicks once said, "We're a virus with shoes."