Jorts is a sweet orange cat who spends his days in a workplace with his feline sister, Jean (a tortie). The greatly abbreviated story is that Jorts is a rather simple cat and struggles with things like opening doors and grooming himself. Jean is happy to help Jorts whenever she can. They have a good relationship with each other and are an important component of a positive workspace for all the humans involved as well.

Except there's one person, Pam (not her real name), who for whatever reason decided that she needed to help Jorts learn to open doors, get cups off his head, and groom himself a bit better. Pam (not her real name) was upset when Jorts' person basically asked her to stop. It was easy enough to use door stops and Jean had always stepped up to help and none of it was really a safety issue. Jorts' person added “you can’t expect Jean’s tortoiseshell smarts from orange cat Jorts”

The whole situation escalated to a point where HR was involved and accusations were being made about “perpetuating ethnic stereotypes by saying orange cats are dumb.”

Wait, what?

In the aftermath it was learned that Pam had been spreading butter on Jorts' back to encourage him to groom himself more. There were two problems with this:

1. Pam wasn't using butter. She was using margarine, which does not agree with cats' stomachs. (I can't imagine butter does either, but I digress).
2. Jean was the one licking the 'butter' off of Jorts' back, which lead to such digestive upset that a vet visit was warranted.

Which brings me to the ideas of appropriate accommodation and consent.

Jorts actually did not need Pam's help. Accommodations like door stops and regular brushing were sufficient and Jorts' quality of life was not affected by his inability to open doors or groom his own back. In fact, trying to 'help' Jorts actually hurt Jean.

Additionally, whether accommodation is necessary or not, it's important that a person or cat consent to the 'help.' Even if they need the help, they might not want it from you. Or maybe the help you're offering is not actually helpful. If a person or cat can't actually give consent, then consent should be given by the person or cat's guardian. I sure as heck wouldn't approve of anyone putting butter on my cat just to 'teach' them to groom themselves, even when grooming is a problem.

So if you see statements like "Are you actually helping or are you just buttering the cat?" now you know the reference.

Finally, of the many outcomes of the HR fallout - which did lead to an improvement in Jorts' life - this one is my favorite:

"Pam is NOT to apply margarine to any of her coworkers. Jean has shown she is willing to be in charge of helping Jorts stay clean. If this task becomes onerous for Jean, we can have a groomer help."

If you want the full story, you can read it here: