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Arthur was in the locked room where Siegfried the cat was kept. He watched the cat, having studied him for a long time now, most of Joseph's absence in fact. Siegfried was one mixed up feline. As he took care of the cat's daily requirements, he mused about its life and times.
The main twist in the cat's psyche seemed to be the equation of affection and pain. When Greymalkin scratched him, he purred. He liked her so much he scratched her back. Arthur on the other hand never did anything but pet Siegrfried gently; Siegfried hissed and spat at Arthur, and glared at him spitefully, but he did not ever bite or scratch the ghoul. No, that would be being affectionate, to Siegfried's way of seeing things.
So the question Arthur was mulling over now was, is it a bad thing to hurt Siegfried? If the cat views it as affection... is it a good thing to hurt it? It was the very depth of his thought that made resolution so difficult. He went back and forth inside his head, argument and counter-argument spiralling very far above the everyday world. Arthur nearly completely lost himself in exploration.
For most people, and animals, pain is bad, and affection is good. But for Siegfried they're the same thing. So, does it make good and bad the same thing for him? Or does it make pain good because it is associated with affection? or does it make (what he views as) affection bad, because it is really pain? In what way could pain be said to exist outside Siegfried's subjective sensation? What about for a person interacting with the cat? Is it bad for them to hurt it? Is it only bad if they don't know he thinks of it as affection? If they observe his positive reaction does that then make it not bad? How is it bad if the cat thinks it is good? It could be bad because it supports the cat's mistaken world view that pain is affection, but, assuming that is fixed in his mind, and can't be changed... is that assumption flawed? Should the goal be to change the cat's perception? What about in the meantime? Is it right to withhold what the cat views as affection and let it feel uncared-for?
The thoughts continued, coming to no fixed conclusion. At some point Arthur shifted from considering just the cat, to considering all such beings; he had seen enough at the club to which he and Soon Li had paid a visit. He felt lingering malaise from the thoughts, even as he left the room, having refilled the cat's food and water, and changed his litterbox.