Cats and dogs
I like the new cat. But they are exactly unlike dogs. A couple of examples:
If you cover a dog (head and all) in a blanket, it will fight like mad to get out. Even if it has to hit its head on the coffee table a couple of times to do that. A cat will just lay down and go to sleep.
If you point at something, the dog will look where you’re pointing. If you point at something, the cat will sniff your finger.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:20 am
One exception to the rule about covering a dog with a blanket would be a dachshund. Our’s sleeps under the covers and, when in his crate, will cover himself up with his blanket.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Well, dachshunds are burrowers.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Dogs are one of the few animals that can understand what a human means when he points at something and can follow our gaze. While cats and dogs have spent a comparable amount of time being domesticated, dogs were always utilized for hunting and work and hence needed to understand what we wanted of them, where as cats were used mostly for pest control, and thus were left to their own devices.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Dogs love water, cats hate it. Dogs will let you dress them up, cats won’t. Dogs don’t mind leashes, cats are not a fan. Dogs will defend you, cats don’t care. Both will drool on you though.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Cover my parrot with a blanket and he’ll work his way out, spend the next hour picking lint off it, then the rest of the day dry-humping it. He’ll occasionally laugh about it, but he may be imitating me.
Isn’t there some biblical admonishment, “Neither a burrower, nor a lint here be”?
July 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am
The basset hound I had as a kid was pretty laid-back about the whole blanket thing. I’d read something about where a bunch of guys with smocks and fancy beakers had thrown blankets over dogs and tested how long it took the various breeds to get clear again; naturally I HAD to try it for myself.
Little guy sat under the blanket for a while, then like something out of a Garfield strip, sauntered over to his pet bed and fell into a peaceful little lump.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:32 am
We have a cat that has been dressed in more outfits than Barbie. Some cats will take it, some won’t. My daughter has a tiger that won’t even stand for being petted, much less held.
Dogs do pay more attention to you, but they are more like children. Good ones need good discipline. Cat’s not so much.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Dogs are pretty clever spatially. You can put something a dog wants on the other side of a fence, and he will look up and down, see the open gate and run down the fence to get to it.
A cat will try to climb over the fence, and if that doesn’t work, give up.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:40 am
I think you have Stockholm Syndrome…
July 10th, 2009 at 11:44 am
It has been truly stated that dogs have masters; cats have staff.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Cat brains are pretty different than dog brains. Saying one is smarter than the other is kind of nebulous. Both are evolved to be good at certain tasks. Cats aren’t typically pack animals, so you can’t do the same kind of social conditioning you do with dogs.
But cats are excellent navigators, and have a very sophisticated memory for landmarks, and will roam over large areas if inclined. That’s why you hear cases of families moving miles away, and the cats returning to their old homes.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
‘That’s why you hear cases of families moving miles away, and the cats returning to their old homes’.
I found that to be true with kids also.:)
July 10th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
So Uncle, get thee to the lolcat people!
July 10th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
@Dave thA: +1
July 10th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I read that dogs pick up visual cues from humans better than any other animal.
From my experience with my own dogs, I have no trouble believing it.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
One difference I have found is that cats have truckloads of the spite that dogs appear to lack. Be wary of their wrath. Cats do not have a problem with guns, but if you should happen to have a door closed that the cat feels should not be closed, they will see to it that a new anti-gun bill gets passed for every 30 seconds that door remains closed. Or if their food bowl should get lower than 2/3 full. Or if their water is either low or has something floating in it.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
All I know is that my cats sound a lot like his dog when it comes to blankets. My cats very clearly see blankets as something to lay on, not under.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
You give a dog food and the dog will think, “They are giving me food! They must be gods!”
Give a cat food and the cat will think, “They are giving me food! I must be a god.”
July 10th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
most dogs understand mirrors, and will use them to look at you if they don’t feel like turning around to keep track of what you’re doing. most cats don’t grok mirrors, and some will flatly refuse to look at their own reflections.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Cats also taste good with barbecue sauce and a side of potato salad.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
That’s one point to Nomen Nescio, for the Heinleinian reference. Never thirst!
July 10th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Have never had (I hesitate to say “owned”, sounds like slavery) a dog. But I have had lots of cats, along with my wife, four children and growing brood of g’children.
One thing I have definitely learned, is that cats are as individual as people. And as odd.
‘Nuff said.
July 11th, 2009 at 1:30 am
When a dog greets another dog, he says “Ooo! Can I sniff your butt?” and sticks his nose in the other dog’s butt. When a cat greets another cat, he sticks his butt in the other cat’s face and says “Sniff my butt.”
July 11th, 2009 at 4:08 am
It’s not that cat’s don’t understand what we want when we point at things, it’s that they don’t care. They don’t sense a threat, and they don’t follow commands, so what possible reason would they have for looking over there.
July 11th, 2009 at 10:39 am
With cats, you have to worry about diseases (and I don’t mean Nugent’s Cat Scratch Fever)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii
Your cat can make you crazy.
http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/060803_tgondii_culture.html
Cat feces should be flushed down the toilet or burned.
http://gsbs.utmb.edu/microbook/ch084.htm
Maybe just stick with the dog.
July 11th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Dogs act the way we want people to act.
Cats act the way they really are.
July 12th, 2009 at 9:33 am
there are dog people and there are cat people just like there are elvis fans and there are beatles fans you can like both but you always lean towards one or the other
July 12th, 2009 at 11:11 am
“Both will drool on you though.”
I’ve had plenty of cats (and dogs) in my life, and I can’t say I’ve ever seen a drooling cat. Except maybe a very sick one.
Cats are just too fastidious and tidy to sit around with slobber spilling out of their mouths.
Nevertheless, nice to see a thread that’s relatively receptive to both animals. I’ve never understood the ongoing cats-vs-dogs debate. They’re both awesome (to use the word I’d have deployed when I was 10 and already very much attached to both).
July 12th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Tom1: I’ve known cats that drool rather a lot when they’re happy and purring up a storm.
July 12th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
One of our cats drools at the drop of a hat – the other one never did.
Cats seem (to me, as someone who’s never lived with a dog) to be much more variable in socialization than dogs. Dogs have a smaller range of “standoffishness” to “up your butt” than cats. If you want a social feline, start early. They can be trained, but it’s a little harder than with a dog. And the legendary dislike of water is just that – a legend. Cats can be conditioned to put up with or even like water.
July 13th, 2009 at 9:46 am
As the owner (gasp @ slavery reference) of two cats…
“Like boxes of shit in your house? Get a cat!”
July 13th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I have two boxers, and both insist on being allowed to get under the covers in the wintertime. They go as far under as they can, and keep nudging me until I lift the covers to let them in.
July 13th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Another owner of a loves-to-burrow-under-the-covers dachshund here….
July 14th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8147566.stm