Cat+Dissection-kp

I couldn’t believe what I had heard when I was told by my teacher that I would be dissecting a cat. A cat that was killed for the sole purpose of high school students dissecting it. Who knew what kind of people would be dissecting the cat and what they would be doing to it. I thought the very idea was inhumane because I am a cat person. I believe cats to be good friends that you can pet and play with when you are sad. I love petting a cat and hearing it purr because it is happy. We were told at the beginning of the year that we would be dissecting the cats, but it never really clicked in my mind until Mr. Orr, my teacher, brought out the boxes of dead cats (one of which was pregnant). The first day was horrible. I felt sick physically and mentally. As the dissection days progressed I got more used to the idea of dissecting the cat. My dissecting partner, Lydia Heter, and I got a tip from my sister who had done the cat dissection a few years earlier. She said, “If you cover the face of the cat you won’t be as sad. That’s what my group did and we were able to get through it”. Lydia and I took my sister’s advice. We were able to become two of the best dissectors in the class (I believe). We came to discover that a lot of knowledge came from dissecting the cat as well as understanding of our own organs and muscles. It was cool to see where our organs were and how thin or thick some of our muscles are. We were able to recollect everything that we had learned all year and see it in the cat. I learned a lot about the structure of the cat body as well as my own. It was very informative and intriguing. Each day my partner and I found ourselves rushing through the process of dissecting the cat because we were afraid of not finishing the list that we were given. We were given a list of things that we had to find in the cat and take a picture of (I was once again the photographer). I believe that I could have maybe understood the reason why some muscles are shaped the way they are or why they were placed in that specific spot in the body. I felt that the cat dissection, in the end, was very rewarding. Even though I was against it at first, I believe that a lot can be learned from it. Much understanding can come from going through a body and seeing what we were taught. It will definitely help my fellow classmates and I to remember what we learned this year.