As a change from the deeply-emotional-life-can-be-terrible-why-do-people-have-to-die sort of blog, I’ve decided to take a slightly different tack today.
I’ve been blessed to have both cats and dogs share my home at various times in my life. They’re different in so many ways but they’re the same in the important ones.
A cat: Very well, you can scratch me under the chin for four seconds; that’s long enough; now leave me alone for the rest of the afternoon.
A dog: Yes, yes, yes! Scratch me, please, anywhere you like, for as long as you like; no, don’t stop…what have I done wrong? Why are you walking away?
A cat: I know I enjoyed the tuna yesterday but today is Saturday. I scoff at your tuna. I sneer at your chicken. Where’s the caviar?
A dog: FOOD!
A cat: I’ve brought you a mouse. You should be pleased. Of course, I refuse to eat it – eewww – and I’m not entirely sure it’s dead, but it’s your responsibility now.
A dog: Mouse? Where? What?
A cat: You were out all day? Really? I didn’t notice.
A dog: You’re home! You’re home! I know you only went to get the letters, and it only took five minutes, but you were gone!!!
A cat: These are my humans. I am free to ignore them, or scratch them, or drive them crazy by racing around the house in the middle of the night but I will be deeply offended if you upset them. So… don’t.
A dog: These are my humans. I would die for them but, if you hurt them, I’ll make sure you die first.
Cats and dogs and things they have in common: Fur (and, sometimes, fleas); love.
Cats and dogs: the yin and yang of the animal world.
Very true,Wendy! You have captured the essential natures of our wonderful companions!
Thanks, Chris. I love them both.
Mouse? I brought them a mouse and it was fun. I sat there flicking tail and twitching my whiskers when Marc and Sue ran around yelling something about a net. A net? Really? It’s just a mouse. Maggie and Hero (I’ll miss Hero now he’s gone – but don’t tell anyone I said that) sat to attention, wagging their tails, ready to bounce into action.
Really … It was all beneath me. Dogs should learn to slink and prowl, not ‘bounce’. Bouncing is unbecoming and a sure sign if inbreeding, Maggie. Anyway, the mouse ran up the clock and they caught it. Sue made a lame joke about striking ‘one’ so I’ll save up a tap on the bottom for Maggie tonight when I ambush her. Maggie does take so long to do her wees and poos at night and scaring her is so much fun.
Anyway they caught the mouse and would you believe they took it away? They let it go about the distance a cat could run in a minute away (humans are slow and were out for twenty times that time). Sigh – such a waste of a good warm mouse. Never mind, it came back four hours later and I caught it for them again. Don’t know what they did with that one. Nobody tells me anything. Still it’s nighttime and Maggie is outside. Time for fun. I wonder if she was a mouse in another life?
Thanks for sharing that, Amber. It sounds as if Marc, Sue and Maggie are lucky to have you living with them. I’m sorry your gift was spurned. Rex tries to catch the mice, too, but he’s always several steps (metres) behind them. Perhaps, one day, you could give him some lessons. We use a non-kill trap that works really well. We release the mouse in a park down the hill from us. I really hope they have a good life out in the fields but, if they prefer to be inside, there are about 8 other houses to get past before reaching our house, so we doubt it’d make the effort. Keep up the good work, Amber. 🙂
Purr, purr, purr. I will.
And I’m happy to train Rex for you. How does he respond to claws? I find it helps Maggie gain a meter or two of pace. Purr…
It’s dogs for me over cats always, but I’ve written about both and other creatures. We have four dogs, and they’ve decided snakes are far more interesting than mice. Sadly the dogs and snakes are far more evenly matched than the dogs and mice … Dogs are still winning so far and I hops it stays that way – snake bites are extremely expensive, as we discovered last snake season … The snake lost, the dog won, but the vets did the best out of it.
Yes, unfortunately the dog (or cat) doesn’t always win with snakes. A couple of my friends have lost pets to snake bites. I hope your fur kids stay safe.