How are companion animals, and cats in particular, built as Otherness, on social media? And how are human–animal boundaries reconfigured along the flow of online digital interactions? This article tries to answer these questions drawing on the story of female cat Daphne, as reported on the official Facebook page of a Portuguese animal shelter. Based on both narrative analysis and categorical content analysis of the posts and comments around the story, the article discusses the social construction of nonhuman animals, bringing together concepts from human–animal studies, science and technology studies, and media studies. It argues that, through digital practices on social media, animals are done and undone. Two emergent and conflicting versions of the same animal, Daphne, are constructed throughout the unstable and contingent flow of digital exchanges: the-animal-victim and the-animal-maladjusted. As such, digital practices become also animal practices, contributing to normative definitions of what an animal ‘is’. As a result, human–animal boundaries are reinstalled and reinforced, and the animals themselves become, once more and paradoxically, invisible.

中文翻译：

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Daphne the Cat：在 Facebook 上重新构想人与动物的界限

社交媒体上的伴侣动物，尤其是猫，是如何被塑造成他者的？以及如何沿着在线数字交互流程重新配置人与动物的界限？本文试图通过葡萄牙动物收容所官方 Facebook 页面上报道的母猫达芙妮的故事来回答这些问题。本文基于对围绕故事的帖子和评论的叙事分析和分类内容分析，讨论了非人类动物的社会建构，汇集了人类-动物研究、科学技术研究和媒体研究的概念。它认为，通过社交媒体上的数字化实践，动物可以完成和解散。同一种动物达芙妮的两个突然出现和相互冲突的版本，是在不稳定和偶然的数字交换流中构建的：动物受害者和动物失调。因此，数字实践也成为动物实践，有助于对动物“是什么”的规范定义。结果，人与动物的界限被重新设置和加强，而动物本身又一次矛盾地变得不可见。