Dogs view every man and woman as the greatest. Hence the popularity of dogs. Cats on the other hand view us as, at best, fairly dim servants:
Wait for it… 😸 https://t.co/r13c9fP4oc
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) December 4, 2020
The popularity of cats is a tribute to human perversity, a much underrated factor in the affairs of Man.
We are slaves to two cats here at my house. DH retired, and now one of our cats is living the dream. DH can’t sit down, or even eat, without a giant ball of fluffy trying to take its rightful place on his lap.
.
Pretty much trapped at home due to Tyrant Gretchen’s machinations, we realize that my husband does have a mild allergy to cats that went undetected as his seasonal allergies are quite a bit worse.
Very few dogs I can stand– too busy assuring me I’m great.
Cats, I can trust. “You, human, are acceptable.”
Plus, it’s hard to beat finding the “kitten” curled up with the toddler she’s been running from all day. 😀
Cats on the other hand view us as, at best, fairly dim servants:
The popularity of cats is a tribute to human perversity, a much underrated factor in the affairs of Man.
Cats are inner-directed, have their preferred routines, and run on their own schedule. They let you know they appreciate you, but at a time of their choosing.
They don’t care for disruption of their routines or for unfamiliar surroundings. At the same time, they can adjust rapidly to a new territory if it has salient features of the old territory. A veterinarian told us 40-odd years ago ‘dogs are people animals, cats are place animals’. Not strictly true. If you move within a certain distance, your cat may home in on your previous residence, but, as a rule, they understand their territory as where their peeps are living.
Cats are quite engaging if you appreciate certain things and are entertained by their quirks. A confab of cat lovers will include competing stories about odd little things they’ve done of late.
The cat constituency does tend to skew female and skew toward introverted and detail-oriented people, but not completely.
The film Harry and Tonto was an Art Carney vehicle about a man navigating old age (with his cat as his helper). Problem: neither Carney (nor, apparently, anyone who worked on the film) were familiar with cats and how they react to different sorts of stimuli. The cat they used in the film had to have been drugged.
Harry and Tonto
Loved the film Art. The drugged cat explains a lot.
Loved the film Art. The drugged cat explains a lot.
Not sure what it explains to you. The thing is: (1) no cat owner would manhandle a cat the way Carney does in the film. You can pick up a cat that way, but they don’t tolerate for longer than about 10 seconds, if that. He doesn’t pick up the cat that way to avert a sudden problem; that’s the way he handles the cat normally. (2) Cats are ordinarily very agitated in automobiles, which manifests itself in several ways (crying, incontinence, hiding, jumping about, or clawing – every cat is different). “Tonto” just lies there on the seat. (3) The behavior and dispositions of “Harry” in the film are (now and again) arbitrary assemblages, as are those of his children and grandchildren.
Not sure what it explains to you.
Uncatlike behavior, including not being a royal pain to do anything in a film.
Uncatlike behavior, including not being a royal pain to do anything in a film.
They have animal trainers who can work with cats. There’s a Youtube recycling an old local news feature story about the man who trained the series of cats you saw in the “Nine Lives” commercials. One of the various Star Trek spinoffs had a cat in occasional attendance. The actor Brent Spiner making an appearance at some event was asked about it and he said workdays including those scenes were always frustrating and tedious, because the cat was uncooperative by default and it could take hours and hours to wrap up a short segment.
Art Carney did more than one film around that time about a man coping with old age. Those films are not light entertainment. There are bits and pieces of Harry and Tonto which are well-executed, but when you come down to it, the characters and their decision-making don’t make much sense. It’s also, of course, a 1974 film that incorporates certain conventions of the era, which adds to its depressing aspect.
They have animal trainers who can work with cats.
They do, but they are hard to train compared to dogs. I recall an old saying from Vaudeville that you never wanted to work with animals or kids because you could never be certain what they were going to do.
Carney was 56 in 1974 and he was reluctant to take on the role which won him an Oscar because he was reluctant to play a role twenty years older than he was at the time.
Doesn’t the young man realize that this is how one gets a cat?
I have lived with either cats or dogs (or both) since my preteen years. Think early to mid 1960’s. I love them all. Have had cats exclusively in my own home for the past 40 years largely because I lacked the time to care properly for dogs. But my brother and our best friends have dogs we regard as family, and the attitude is reciprocated by the four-legged friends. It is impossible to compare them, really, except to say things like “Dogs have owners, but cats have staff.” 😁
The ideal situation, to me, would be to bring home puppies and kittens at or about the same time, and let them grow up together. As with all children, they will unconditionally love one another for life if we humans don’t interfere. And produce some of the funniest and most heart warming photos and videos I can imagine.
“Dogs have owners, but cats have staff.” 😁
That sums it up nicely.
I prefer cats. They don’t need a lot of coddling. Usually they don’t make messes in the house but use the litter box. They are independent. And yes, they can be as loving as any dog, but on their terms.
That said, I love dogs too. But our Chihuahua always makes messes in the house – was never properly trained as a puppy. Too late now. Never had that problem with cats except with an unfixed male cat who will spray everywhere and that’s even worse.
Definitely prefer cats – fixed cats. No spark plugs on the males. No ovaries in the females. But my wife doesn’t. 🙁
Carney was 56 in 1974 and he was reluctant to take on the role which won him an Oscar because he was reluctant to play a role twenty years older than he was at the time.
The character was a retired schoolteacher, still quite ambulatory. I’d guess meant to be ~68. A 75 year old man who didn’t walk old and was willing and able to drive cross-country in a used car would have been most unusual in 1973. The crew of actors who played his sons, daughter, and daughter-in-law were ages 41-44 when the production was underway – about a dozen years younger than Carney himself. I hadn’t heard he won an Oscar. Note: he won the Oscar, not the film.
As a cat- lover, I laughed loudly at a meme I saw on Facebook: “Why are cats so pissy most of the time? Because they are nature’s perfect killing machine. But they only weigh 8 pounds, and we pick them up and kiss them. “
Yep. A cat will kill for sport even if fully fed. The way they play with a mouse before killing it might indicate that sadism is not just a human vice.
Don, be careful of anthropomorphism here. Sadism requires intellect and will, neither of which any animal but humans possesses. Yes, cats appear to enjoy killing. But any animal killing another appears cruel to me. It’s why I stopped watching “nature” shows on TV. I had the bad luck to witness a Doberman killing my pet cat when I was 12, and he appeared to enjoy it thoroughly. I hope to ask God someday why He made his creatures that way.
Frank your concern about viewing animals like humans is a worthy one. However animals, at least the higher ones, do possess intelligence and will of a sort, heavily overlain by instinct. The killing instinct of course is necessary for most animals to survive, the first law of nature. Puppies and kittens often play hunt in order to learn how to hunt. This of course is an area where knowledge is short and speculation is long.
Dogs will kill for fun, too. They’re just much more likely to choose targets that get them killed. Like calves, or kids.
The scary thing is, with both, you can see the same movements that you recognize from playing with a dog or cat that recognizes you as a pack-member and won’t hurt you.
(Count me among those who is scared silly about the damage we’re doing in sterilizing all the pets and shipping in feral dogs for “pets.”)
Yep. A cat will kill for sport even if fully fed. The way they play with a mouse before killing it might indicate that sadism is not just a human vice.
The functional symbiosis between cats and people is that cats keep your abode clear of vermin. That’s less of an issue now than it was 50 years ago and less of an issue then than was the case 30 years previous. My mother spent a fat chunk of her upbringing in a rented house infested with rats, something I can hardly imagine. She said you could hear the rats running up and down in side the walls. My grandmother thought pets were an affectation of childless people and my grandfather was an anxiety-ridden man who didn’t bond readily with anyone. So, they had no cats, and just accepted the rats.
We’ve recently lost our cats, who didn’t have much opportunity to hunt. His predecessor was very adept at it in one way we could appreciate: she could catch bats. Real problem where we lived.
We had the occasional mouse in the house I grew up in and the occasional cat. The cats earned their keep.
Farmboy who has had dogs and barn cats most of his life. Best cat we ever had was a stray that adopted us. She was very affectionate and had quite the kill count.
And now I will quote from the parliament of beasts and birds by John c Wright.
Hound said, “If my master has gone forever, then will I obey his word forever, and never will I enter the city. The First Hound was the first beast ever to be given a name by Adam, the First Man, and that honor we have never forgotten.” A sharp laugh came from the bushes nearby. It was Fox, with his bright, cunning eyes and his black fur. “And for your loyalty, yours was the first tribe expelled from Eden with him, O Hound!” “He needed the company,” said Hound simply.
[Snip]
the Fox said slyly, “Who can read this riddle for us, O Liege? The undomesticated animals will not enter Man’s realm for awe of him, and the loyal animals will not enter out of obedient love for him. Who, then, is neither undomesticated yet not loyal? Who is not awed?” The Lion still had his paw raised high, but instead of striking, he replied. “My little cousin, Cat. I have never yet heard rumor of a cat that either fetched or came when called, but Man kept Cat in barn and loft and parlor, and put her on a pillow, and fed her with cream. Cat can enter the dead city of Man, and tell us what fate befell.”
[Snip]
And the Bull said, “Her ancestor was the very last to leave Eden and join Man in his exile, for Cat lingered to see what became of the immortal phoenix who never dies, and the never lonely amphisbaena, who neither eats nor excretes, and others animals more pure than Man. And it was for Eve’s sake alone that Cat came, and that slowly. So it is fitting that the last to depart from the garden Man dared not enter be the first to enter the city we dare not.”
Feral dog packs as well as coyotes are a concern in my neck of the woods. Unfortunately in Virginia in the latter part of deer season, after bow and black powder, deer hunters can use dogs, some with antennas. I doubt the venison full of adrenalin tastes as good as a deer shot from a deer stand or stalked w/o dogs. We see many “retired” hounds as road kill. We also see dogs that are starving. I feed and water them, then call animal control. If they are really in bad shape they won’t go back to the owner assuming they have a collar. It is against the law to remove the collar. Many are adopted.
I am a proponent of neutering cats and dogs and vaccinating. The shelters and rescue organizations usually can spot suitable ones for pets. There’s a trend now for no kill shelters. Not suitable ones may go to sanctuaries or businesses take those cats and they become work cats in warehouses and stockrooms. . There are seven cats around the farm. All neutered and up to date for rabies and other diseases. All with distinct personalities. Never had a rat or mouse in the house.