No kidding? I didn’t actually know that.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The day you train your cat to bring you the newspaper, I’ll be impressed. Until then, yawn.

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!

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.

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.

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.