We have one dog, one cat. But a lot of people are so determined to segregate pet owners into Dog People and Cat People that it often does not register to them that we do have a dog while we have a cat. And neither of them are our firsts.
I might be wildly exaggerating but I think people who do this have a hard time navigating grey lines. They tend to see the world in black and whites. They also like to put people in boxes and generally believe that their impression of people is the truth; that people could have sides to them that they don’t show to everyone is beyond their ken.
I do appreciate that there is a general divide between people who prefer one over the other. As a general rule of thumb, I believe people who like to call themselves “dog lovers” tend to be of the type I was talking about. They tend to want things to be a certain defined way. They have a harder time reading between lines. And they need to be needed.
People who like or tolerate cats tend to be much more empathetic. This is necessary because cats are very often unlikable. What is amusing and cute to a lot of cat lovers is extremely unwanted behaviour that some people would even call felony. Like cats stealing smoked meat from people’s homes. What do cats know of human criminal laws? They see a food they like that is unguarded; they are hungry; they take it. If you apply human laws on a very tiny, furry creature with a very flat face and highly expressive Manga eyes, it is hilarious. But very often, people who hate cats hate this. Honestly though, how small a human must you be to treat a dumb animal like your equal who must be answerable to you? Maybe one just as dumb? Because cats are dumb.
People who like cats tend to like other animals too. If you can like a cat, it is not hard to like every other animal out there. Cats are assholes. Cats look like they understand you but actively choose not to acquiesce to you. Cats will love you when they want something from you and act like they don’t know you if you met them outside your house. Cats will retaliate if you hurt them; and they have sharp claws and apex predator reflexes. Whatever intelligence cats have is purely predatorial – the curiosity, the problem-solving, the twisting and turning, the parkour expertise… they are ungovernable.
Meanwhile, dogs can be tamed. Which is how a lot of people see the world – they like the animal that can be tamed, they hate the animal that is free; they like the entity that is dependent on them, they hate the entity that has very clear boundaries.
I’d say generally that dog lovers tend to identify themselves as "Dog Lovers" and cater specifically to that and make distinctions between them and Cat People. People who like cats don't usually call themselves Cat Lovers as such because very often, they like most other animals too and usually do have dogs as well. On this high generalization, I've deduced that, on the whole, Dog Lovers tend to be nicer but “cat people” tend to be kinder. Meaner though, perhaps. Very probably, by the by.
In my family, we’ve buried four dogs – three Bingos and one Noddy. We’ve also buried five cats – Tokio, Lumos Maxima (Momo), Nihawiparmawii (Nix), Rory Williams (Noni), and Chandler Muriel Bing (Pu Lulua). We have two living with us now – Simi and Snowy.
Simi is short for Simple, which is short for Simple Thinking, High Living because she’s a dumb little tuxedo cat who sometimes act like she is Princess Grace of Monaco. Her name on the Vet card is Lola Swift. Ridiculous, I know. Snowy the dog is an honorary cat because having been raised by Momo the cat, she sometimes thinks she is a cat. Dumb, I know.
They’re both dumb. But we love them both.
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