A big part of my respect for cats is how they've worked out a deal where they get what they want, when they want it, and have no requirements to do anything that they don't feel like.
This has kind of shaken me.
18th century "cat contract" (納貓兒契式; based on a Yuan-dynasty original), laying out the cat's duties and responsibilities: tirelessly guarding the grain, repelling the "mousey bandits" (鼠賊), not messing with the livestock, not stealing numnums "of any kind whatsoever" (不得偷盜食諸般).
