The Imprisonment of Stray Cats in Cat Bill

In his veto of the infamous “Cat Bill”, Governor Stevenson wields a professional but deliberate diction as well as figurative language to logically yet sarcastically reject and ridicule the utter absurdity of allowing the imprisonment of the common household cat.

Starting in the beginning of the veto, Stevenson formally explains common knowledge regarding cats and their nature so anyone reading the statement can logically comprehend his reasoning of the absurdity of the bill. He reminds the reader that cats are freely wandering by nature and leashing a cat or accompanying a cat in its nocturnal prowl would be obviously impractical. By restating these obvious pieces of information, Stevenson subtly mocks the rationality that went into deciding that the harmless roaming of cats should be illegal and forces the reader to understand the completely unnecessity of outlawing the natural behavior of cats. He also uses phrases such as “combatting rodents” and “useful service” to provide a positive image for cats as a way to persuade readers into thinking that cats do not cause any harm on a constitutional level.

Later in the statement, Stevenson’s argument becomes progressively more satirical, optimising personification and hyperboles as he gets increasingly more frustrated with the Cat Bill. He describes the enforcement of this law a “small game hunt by zealous citizens”, prompting an imaginative approach to visualizing the effects of the bill. This statement may humorously guide the reader into picturing common citizens eagerly patrolling the suburban neighborhoods, wearing safari hats and khaki shorts as they await the predatory felines to fall into their metal traps. The mere exaggeration and mockery of these lively images introduced by Stevenson allows the reader to take the situation at hand lightheartedly, and consequently, to understand to not take the bill itself as seriously as well. Stevenson also sarcastically refers to the roaming of cats as “feline delinquency”, which raises the question of, since there are such things as feline delinquents, whether there are feline citizens as well. There may even be a feline judicial system with feline judges and feline juries. The inclusion of the phrase “feline delinquency” further mocks the absurdity within the bill in order to help Stevenson prevent the imprisonment of cats from overflowing the state’s federal prisons.