Aug. 13, 2024 – Andy is in OurLitteCorner today

Can a “Dog Person” Also Be a “Cat Person”?

I couldn’t help but be drawn to a recent NYTimes opinion article by Pamela Paul entitled “The Saying Goes: Dogs Are Man’s Best Friend. But Cats Are Better.” Paul distinguishes between those who consider themselves to be “dog persons” and those who consider themselves to be “cat persons” and claims that being a “cat person” is undervalued in our society.

That got me thinking about how I see myself in this regard. Even though I’ve been around cats and dogs all of my life, I’ve always considered myself to be a “dog person.” 

By the time I was nine years old I had become obsessed with dog stories and had devoured every dog-based novel available at the local library.

Later in life my dog obsession was reflected in my parenting (and grand-parenting) duties. I recount in an earlier blog (Bedtime Stories: Mother Goose Meets Lassie) that as the designated bedtime book-reader and story-teller for our kids (and later, our grandkids) I nearly always told tales about heroic dogs and their adventures.

And after the kids (and grandkids) outgrew the need for bedtime stories I shifted to writing blogs about our dogs. I’ve written (and posted videos) about how they got their names, how they play, their eating habits, their athletic prowess, their social capital value, and even their political preferences.

What’s of interest is that cats have been as much a part of my life as have dogs. In fact, the first pet Ann and I acquired as a couple was a rescue cat we got during my first Army duty assignment at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. We named her “Raggedy” so we would be Raggedy, Ann, and Andy (get it?). She was the first of many cats we’ve had in our 57 years of marriage.

Yet, cats have always played second fiddle to my dogs. I don’t even recall the names of the cats I grew up with. This diminished standing of the cats in my life became evident when I tried to find childhood family photos for today’s blog. I dug up many with our dogs but could find only one with cats.

And I don’t recall any of my bedtime stories for our kids (and grandkids) featuring heroic cats coming to the rescue. Cats also have been on the short end of the stick in my blogs and the little I have written about them tends to be derogatory. In A Tale of Two Kitties I graphically detail the hostility that simmers between our cats Ono and Choco and the title Our Cat is a Jerk. There, I’ve Said It speaks for itself.

Have I been fair in my obvious bias favoring dogs over cats? Maybe not. As Paul reminds us, cats come toilet trained, land on their feet when you drop them, can be easily kept indoors, don’t mindlessly bark in the night, don’t smell, don’t need to be walked, and don’t require much washing and grooming. And Paul explains that the reputation of being finicky, standoffish, and neurotic has been challenged by recent research.

Rachel Nuwer in a NY Times article entitled Cats Like People! (Some People, Anyway) provides a good overview of this research. She claims that while cats have been understudied (dogs get the lion’s share of research funding!), “a handful of undeterred scientists” have produced a small body of research that suggests we have underestimated cats’ social skills. For example, cats have been found to be social creatures capable of relationships with people. They even prefer hanging out with a person over eating or playing with a toy. Researchers also discovered that once a cat forms a bond with a human it persists over time and that cats, like human toddlers, feel more secure in unfamiliar places when with their “parent.”

Reading about this research came as quite a jolt to me. It appears that my life-long pro-dog biases may have blinded me to the fact that those cats that have been underfoot in our household are not effete four-legged snobs and could end up being my “best friend.” This creates a dilemma. How am I going to break this news to our dogs?