Why Do We Love Cats (When They Don't Care)?

My FIL sent me this real interesting (but not surprising, at least to me) article about how (house) cats have probably got the final laugh on us humans. Here we go, thinking we've tamed them, turned them into these domesticated pets, and, what has actually been going on is they've tamed/trained US.

You can read the article now by clicking here.

Anyone who shares their life with a cat probably knows this to be true.

One of the things that struck me as intriguing is the stuff about what we'll let cats get away with that, in all likelihood, we'd never let our dogs do.

Case in point. Lucy the dog was laying on the rug in front of the kitchen sink yesterday afternoon while I was roasting bell peppers. She lays there all the time, usually when she is hoping the person who is preparing dinner might toss her something (this even though we've not tossed her a damn thing (in the house, other than ice) since she almost bit Lily's head off this past April). I must have told her five times yesterday to get out of my way while nudging her when I went over to do something at the sink.

About an hour later, Ares decided he was going to take a nap on that same rug. Both Mr. B and I were straddling the rug when we needed to go to the sink, God knows we couldn't disturb Little Butt Head (Pete is Big Butt Head). Ok, so, admittedly, our cats can be "Butt Heads" and yet we kow-tow to them. I pointed out to Mr. B that we were trying our hardest to not disturb Ares; he said, "But he's sleeping and he looks so cute".

Up to fairly recently, I always thought Mr. B was a dog person, too :-)

Seriously, he does like dogs, of course he does. He's owned dogs for almost his entire adult life. However, come to find out, he also enjoys cats. It was his ex-wife who hated them; saying they were dirty things (Mr. B said she was afraid of them). One more strike against her, in my opinion (although she did once run over and kill someone's dog (while they were walking it, I might add, so who knows?))

I digress.

Anyway, was Ares manipulating us? Maybe not at that point in time (he was asleep) but, I'm pretty sure all four of them try their best to get what they want by looking cute, sounding sweet, meowing, chirping, purring, etc. The dog, well, she just licks us. Something I can't stand, BTW.

This article points out that we let cats do stuff to us/put up with their antics similar to how we may have let an old boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, etc. (or maybe more than one) walk all over us at one point in our lives.

So, this begs the question of why some people prefer cats to dogs (and vice versa).

Which got me to thinking about the difference in personalities between "dog people" and "cat people" (we all know already what the difference in personalities is, typically, between dogs and cats!)

I've always believed that a person who preferred dogs was the type of person who desired unconditional love and, for the most part, constant companionship. Not to mention dedication, loyalty and a true-hearted friend.

NOT BAD DESIRES! LET ME PREFACE THE FOLLOWING WITH THAT RIGHT NOW!

People who prefer cats might not want all that in your face love but, rather, something more subtle, and, yes, maybe challenging. THEY want to be the ones to provide the unconditional love but not all the time. Meaning, cats don't require quite as much attention and care.

Now, what about people who have BOTH cats and dogs? Where do we stand?

Seriously conflicted, I think. But, we've definitely got our bases covered!

Mrs. B