LOVE FOR ANIMALS
ABOUT CATS AND DOGS
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It's Raining Cats and Dog
by Leanne Grabel
"I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons."
--Will Rogers
"Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow."
--Jeff Valdez
"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."
--Winston Churchill.
More than half of all US households have pets. In fact, pets are more common in American households than children. There are 51 million American dogs and 56 million American cats. (And not one of them is voting for Bush.)
Fifi, You Look Fabulous
Pets are nothing new. Throughout history, animals have played a significant role in human customs, legends and religions. In ancient times, dogs were believed to be descended from Anubis, the judge of the otherworld. And cats were believed to be descended from Pasht, the daughter of the moon. Cats wore gold earrings and dogs wore silver necklaces. In ancient Egypt, when a cat or dog died, its owners would shave off their eyebrows and weep
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Throw Away the Prozac
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Besides the fact that pets make the best friends ever because they spend almost all their quality time loving you, and besides which, they don't talk much, it has now been proven that caring for a pet has powerfully positive physical effects, like lowering blood pressure, increasing longevity, and easing high-stress life transitions, such as loss of a family member.
What's intriguing about pet ownership, however, is how clearly people tend to fall into two camps: dog people and cat people. And it's only those who grew up in rural areas with a variety of animals around who can manage to adore both
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Digging Dogs
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"They give undivided devotion," is what one dog owner said, "whereas cats expect you to treat them with undivided devotion." That's it in a nutshell. Dog owners say dogs are the best because they can be their best friends, pals with whom they can go swimming, hiking, play frisbee. They say their cuddly canines are more jovial, adoring, protective, happy-go-lucky, and are much better lovers (now I'm not talking sexually, although we all know that that kink exists) than those fickle felines. Says one doglover, "I know that a dog is dependent, but that's a dog's charm."
Dog lovers love to be needed. They love to play. And they love that a dog just keeps loving, never noticing when the crow's feet begin to splay at the temple, when the skin begins to spot, begins to sag, when they're in the worst damn moods of their lives.
Couch Divas
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Cat lovers call dogs dorky, messy, and co-dependent. They like a cat for its sassiness and aloofness and say that when a cat likes you, you feel special. "It means something." They like a cat's independence. Its ability to be warm, fuzzy, loving, thoroughly unique, and although its proven that a cat's mouth is the dirtiest orifice on the globe and a dog's is the cleanest, cat lovers love a cat for its ability to clean itself, to bury its "output," etc.
Some of our more spiritual catlovers waxed positively ethereal calling cats the reincarnation of Buddha, of monks. "They are knowing and wise." Although one doglover says she can tell her dog to get a specific toy from the upstairs bedroom, a specific pair of slippers, a magazine, and her dog gets up, trots upstairs, and brings her exactly what she wants, adding, "Cats are so boring, they put me to sleep."
Dream Lover
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The bottomline is that human beings love cats and dogs because they are unconditional lovers, they don't leave their dirty socks around the house, they don't argue, need to go to college, or to be driven to soccer games, dance lessons, or malls. They just cuddle, lick, adore, have endearing looks on their faces, and make their owners laugh by doing silly things like burying T-bones under imaginary shrubs in the family room, and bring home pizzas, boxes of barely-touched Schezuan beef, and even dirty lingerie. Now I ask you, what could be more charming than that?
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Leanne Grabel is a dogperson and proud owner of Rosie, a golden lab mix who sheds approximately 3 buckets of blonde hair per day (at least it's blonde). She has hated cats since her first and only kitty gave her ringworm in 2nd grade and her mother forbade her to have any more kitties for the rest of her life.
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