From the link that @paraphrand@lemmy.world posted:
In Cuyp’s depiction the suppression of carnal desires is represented by the enraged cat, the traditional symbol of lust, being tempted yet restrained from the object of its desire – the fish. The courting couple of the background serves to underline the message. The distant castle can be linked to the idea of the palais d’amour which featured in late-medieval imagery from the Garden of Love a theme which had remained popular well into the seventeenth century.
"Once I decided to be a shitty person, so I snuck out to do something really shitty, snuck back, and then I let a person who cared about me and who didn't know I was shitty do things he wouldn't have done if he knew about the first shitty thing, exposing him to some risks in the process, making me an exponentially shittier person. "