CATS

[krogothwolf]

I love both animals, but out of my 2 dogs and 2 cats, the cats are far more intelligent then my dogs. The respond better to their names then the dogs, they are far better trained.

I use to hate cats and love dogs more but since owning Cat's i've found them to be easier to train, smarter and more calm then dogs.

If you want energy get a dog, if you want a pet that'll lay in your lap and be there around you get a cat.

Think about it this way, you train the dog to go outside, it goes everywhere outside. You train the cat to go in the litter box, it wont even go in that litter box if its different litter and will hold it in till it has to because it's trained to go in a certain type of litter. Cats are also, from the young to the old, much more relaxed then dogs. Dogs are almost always high on energy unless you get a specific breed of dog. Dogs usually wont stop eating till the foods gone. Cats are smart enough to eat what they are hungry for and stop eating after that.

I've also noticed cats generally tend to be able to read the mood of a human. If I'm sad for whatever reason my cat comes up to me, nuzzles me paws at me, and lays in my lap quicker then if I'm fine. And he also stays around me till I'm feeling better. I've never had a dog do that before.

[BitVyper]

On cats: Cats are awesome. I love cats. They're also very trainable so long as you actually have an idea of what you're doing. Most pet owners don't, sadly. I think the problem is that a lot of people get cats under the impression that they'll just take care of themselves. That's fine if you've got barn cats or something, but you can't just toss them into the burbs and expect them to sort things out to your personal satisfaction themselves. Just because they aren't as social doesn't mean they don't need anything from you.

On dogs: There is a pretty long list of jobs dogs can do that we can't actually come up with a better way of doing. Most of the animal labour we use has been replaced as our technology got better. Not only is this not true with dogs, but we keep finding other things they're good at (like being able to detect cancer with ridiculous accuracy). Also I'm pretty sure Collie Sense is even more potent than Spider Sense.

Canids have been with us pretty much every step of the way almost as far back as we could reasonably be called "human." And dogs basically grew up with us. As species go, they're more or less our foster family.

Funny cat story: I was delivering to a house. On the walkway, there was a cat that more or less resembled Greebo. I'm talking OLDSCHOOL tomcat here. Mangy fur, nasty squint in his eye, couple of scars etc. This is the sort of cat that will get into a fight with the sun convinced that it can win. It was giving me the "FUCK YOU!" squint.

So I make my delivery in as non-threatening a manner as I possibly can. I walk past the cat on my way to leave, fully aware that this is the most likely time for it to go after me.

I hear a hiss.

I wasn't a normal hiss. Not the quick "HSSS" you'll get from a pissed off cat. This was slow and inevitable, like a rising tide. Not forceful, but ominous. It sounded a lot like the Xenos from the Aliens movies. I turned around just in time to see this little monster launch itself at me. I stepped back, so it just caught my leg. The fucker started trying to climb up me. I managed to throw it off (my pant leg in tatters, and my leg cut up a bit), then chased it away, but god DAMN that was a mean old tom.

Also in response to the thread's title:

Move Zig.

[Mashirosen]

H.P. Lovecraft says you're dumb, tasteless, and probably you smell. Just putting that out there.

[01d55]

I was going to make a joke about not relying on ol' H.P. as an authority due to racism, but then I read the link and saw that all the jokes are already there.

[Azisien]

Hahaha, oh man Lovecraft is silly. He thinks just cause I prefer dogs I attach value to humanity. Really, it's the opposite. I have realized from the nigh-perfection of my dogs that humanity, and most other organisms, are quite inferior! Silly Lovecraft, stick to being inspiration for awesome board games.

Come, my fellow canine lovers, we gots some ugly-shedding-jerkish-annoying felines to slay! TO THE WAR PATH!

[katiuska]

Originally Posted by The Wandering God

"Why do you a lot of people love cats instead of dogs?"

Because they are comparatively quiet creatures that don't want/need constant attention. Also, they are sometimes smaller and can be kept indoors so that can be a factor as well.

But mostly it's the 'tude.

Oh, it is on!

The Wandering God

I keep hoping for this thread to turn into an excuse to post a bunch of cat pics.

Re: the relative intelligence of cats and dogs. Because cats aren't pack animals (though they can be social) they aren't as receptive to social cues the way dogs or humans are. Dogs are fairly social intelligent. On the other hand, cats have memory retention and problem-solving skills far beyond dogs and a lot of other mammals. (This is to say nothing about individual variation--my current cat is dopey as hell, cute as he is, while my childhood cat continued to manage whatever he wanted to achieve even when he barely had a viable body to do it with.) That's as much as I'll add. I'm fully in the "cat" camp, but I'm pretty much sick of these arguments on both sides.

[BitVyper]

Originally Posted by Mashirosen

H.P. Lovecraft says you're dumb, tasteless, and probably you smell. Just putting that out there.

Yeah, but he says that about everybody.

[DarkDrgon]

but cats make me unable to breathe.....

[A Zarkin' Frood]

I love cats.
Dogs not so much. I don't like people/animals who mindlessly obey pointless orders by shouting idiots.
Some dogs are okay, though. But they're rather rare.

Cats on the other hand are awesome.

I love cats.
Venetian Snares has a whole album dedicated to his cats. It's called "Songs about my cats" Check it out.

[BitVyper]

I don't like people/animals who mindlessly obey pointless orders by shouting idiots.

See, just shouting orders and expecting results is pretty much how you fail to train a dog. Or any animal for that matter. Dogs and cats are trained essentially the same way. The major difference is that dogs get us a little bit better due to having lived with us for somewhere between fifteen and four hundred thousand years.

Then again, there's a lot more people around who work with dogs, and social constructs based on working with dogs. People don't really get cats for the purpose of training, so it's hard to compare the two in that vein. I guess the biggest difference with cats is that, being less social, they tend to be less interested in what you have to say, so it takes a bit more work to hold their attention.