Reply #22: I like most critters [View All]

[Dogmudgeon]

I like dogs more than cats, but I do like cats. Unfortunately, about one out of every four or five cats will trigger my allergies.

Sometimes it's fun to taunt cat fanciers a little, but I've never been able to understand people who not only hate cats, but cat owners. There are certainly "cat people" who are creepy, but the same thing can be said for folks who raise "macho" dogs like pit bulls and dobermans and attack-train them.

Still, society has a whole list of attributes it assigns to animals. Gadave isn't the first cat fancier who has said "you have to earn their love". My own liking for dogs is based on the fact that most dogs are responsive to human actvity -- and people say that's "want(ing) to love everyone." In reality, I think it's because they have different ways of responding to their environments.

The real test would be to talk to some primatologists, and sound them out about how humans respond to other great apes (and vice-versa). There's also the subject of animals having other animal companions of different species -- chimps "adopting" kittens or puppies, dogs and cats who appear to be devoted to each other, etc.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Before my ability to think goes to the dogs, I need to take a catnap.

--bkl