Not a cat person
I’m not a cat person. Never have been. Here’s why:
I don’t like to keep a box of turds in my house.
Also, if you point at something, a dog will look. The cat will sniff your finger.
Dogs will bark at intruders, cats will show them where your bedroom is.
Dogs come when you call them. Cats look at you like you’re an idiot.
Dogs can be house broken. Cats will always go in your house, though it’s usually (but not always) in a box.
And cat piss ruins anything it touches.
Tom and I don’t agree on much but we do agree that cats suck.
Update: And A University of Missouri-Columbia study says that having a dog can help people get more exercise and lose weight.
October 21st, 2005 at 9:05 am
I generally enjoy the company of both cats and dogs, but I just have more in common with cats.
Dogs? Well, I have a real hard time respecting toadying sycophants, even if they do wag their tails in an engaging fashion. That, and with my work schedule I just don’t have the free time for anything as dependant and needy as a saltwater aquarium, a boyfriend, a baby, or a dog at this point in my life.
October 21st, 2005 at 10:47 am
I like cats just fine when they’re not ruining my shit. But when they are ruining my shit, that’s a problem.
The one (and only) place where cats are better than dogs is that if I want to go away for a three-day weekend, I can just leave out food and water and clean litter and not worry.
All that said, however, I’m not a cat person either. I’m a dog person who happens to have a couple of cats. Both of which were obtained because at the time we were in an apartment that didn’t allow dogs.
October 21st, 2005 at 10:59 am
I wasn’t a cat person at all until Milo showed up at the door. Awesome cat. Very low maintenance, but very loving.
Like Tom says, cats are lower maintenance if you’re heading out of town or have weird hours.
I like dogs more, generally, but there are some dogs that are a royal pain in the ass, moreso than any cat.
October 21st, 2005 at 11:14 am
Cats! Fantastic, wonderful animals.
Dogs. Like ’em but I’m never getting another.
Sure I have to clean litter boxes out, but the dog has shat on the (cream coloured) carpet on more than one occassion. Plus he eats horse poop. And then tries to lick me – ugh!
October 21st, 2005 at 11:16 am
I’m an uber cat persona and not really a dog persona at all. Glocks and dogs, that really says it all, Uncle. The long and the short of it? Dogs smell bad and don’t purr. Cat’s Smell pretty good actually, and they purr. End of story.
October 21st, 2005 at 11:55 am
ben:
The day you train your cat to bring you the newspaper, I’ll be impressed. Until then, yawn. 🙂
October 21st, 2005 at 11:58 am
tgirsch: the day you train your dog to not be a big smelly idiot, I’ll be impressed. Until then, meow meow meow meow… 😀
October 21st, 2005 at 12:00 pm
I don’t want to keep an animal that thinks a box of turds is a buffet in my house.
Cats are natural killers who will rid your property of all sorts of fauna, from squirrels and birds to waterbugs and cockroaches. Dogs will chase squirrels until they get close enough to lick it, then run the other way and hope the squirrel chases them back.
Cats do not think that rolling in something dead and then jumping in your lap is hillarious.
A cat will let you drink a scotch and smoke a cigar when you come home before they demand that you give them 100% of your attention lest they shit on the carpet.
When you give a cat a toy, he will still have that toy a week later, rather than 200 toy parts strewn all over the house.
And cats can be house broken. My parents’ cat uses the same door the dogs do. In fact, he actually uses it 100% of the time, rather than pissing in front of the television when he gets lonely.
October 21st, 2005 at 4:00 pm
Okay I like dogs, and I’ve liked cats, but:
Never had a cat jump on your keyboard? I’ve never had my dog do that, but I’ve had many cats run across a keyboard, or fuck with the newspaper I was reading.
And I’ve never had a dog bring 200 bird parts onto my porch. When I had cats, I had chunks of bird remains very often. I’ll take cotton over bird guts.
October 21st, 2005 at 4:27 pm
I think the real split here is “toadying sycophant” versus “proudly independent and doesn’t give a damn about you unless you forget to refill the food and water dishers.” Dogs are pack animals that never really grow up and can easily be convinced that your family is their pack and you’re the alpha dog. Cats are wild animals that happen to have human-compatible instinctual behavior. Both have their uses. Dogs’ territorial instinct means that they hardly need training to bark at intruders and wake you up; where training is needed is in distinguishing between a human intruder in the house and a squirrel running across the yard. (I assume you don’t appreciate waking up several times each night.) Cats’ hunting instincts mean most of them will learn to catch vermin around your house with no training at all – but it would be nice if it were easier to train them in proper disposal of the remains.
October 22nd, 2005 at 12:57 am
Phelps:
With both dogs and cats, it depends greatly upon the toy. One of our cats loves these little fuzzy balls we get at the vet. He won’t play with anything else, but these he just loves. And between him slobbering on them and constantly dropping them in his water bowl, they get destroyed within a day or two of us giving them to him.
His other favorite toys are pretty much anything breakable that we may set on a flat surface. He loves to push glasses off of the kitchen counter, for example, or knick-knacks and picture frames off the entertainment center. It’s pretty easy to teach a dog not to do that kind of stuff, whereas it’s impossible to teach a cat not to.
But if you prefer girly pets like cats, nobody’s going to hold it against you. 🙂
October 22nd, 2005 at 12:59 am
Oh, and for what it’s worth, my cats will play with roaches until they’re nearly dead, then get bored with them. My dogs, on the other hand, will carry them outside and play with them until they’re quite dead. We trained them to do the “carry outside” part quite inadvertently. After a few times yelling at them to go outside when they found one, they figured it out.
All in all, I’d say that cats certainly are lower-maintenance (except for the whole one-accident-completely-destroys-your furniture thing), but the rewards are a lot smaller, too. A dog requires more work, but you can get a lot more out of a dog.
October 23rd, 2005 at 11:47 am
I don’t like to keep a box of turds in my house.
But they are little turds and all in one place. With dogs, unless you live in a rural area, you still to have to deal with poop. If you live in the city, you’ll have to follow your dog around with a scooper and a plastic bag full of dog poop. If you have a yard, you’re either going to end up with a lawn full of poops in varying stages of petrification or you’ll have to go back there and pick them up. Unless you’re the type that lets the dog roam the neighborhood and doesn’t care if your neighbors hate you.
…one-accident-completely-destroys-your furniture thing…
I’ll grant that dogs don’t typically go on the furniture, but they aren’t exempt from the one-accident-completely-destroys-your carpet thing. If you have a cat that goes on the furniture, either discipline it or get rid of it. The only cat we’ve ever had who peed on our stuff went right back where it came from. Re: the litter box issue, you can install a kitty-door so the little bugger can go outside to relieve itself. When Ben and I had cats as young ‘uns, they went outside and didn’t bother with the box unless it was a rainy day.
Incidentally, best toys in the world for cats are those little furry faux mice. Our cat never gets tired of them.
October 23rd, 2005 at 11:52 pm
… When Ben and I had cats as young ‘uns, they went outside and didn’t bother with the box unless it was a rainy day.
No kidding? I didn’t actually know that.
October 23rd, 2005 at 11:57 pm
No kidding. Mom kept a box in the basement, but most of the time they crapped in the neighbors’ yards.
October 24th, 2005 at 5:04 pm
A friend of mine has a BB gun which he uses solely to shoot the neighborhood cats he catches crapping in his yard. Why is it that letting your dog run around the neighborhood is widely viewed as irresponsible, but letting your cat run all over the neighborhood is okay?