People have argued cats VS dogs forever, but I've always been unimpressed with the arguments both sides put forward
Cats are far superior
I'll explain exactly why. Cats sit at the exact optimum of pet-ness because every attribute they have stops before it becomes a problem
Cats possess the exact amount of intelligence that is useful in a pet. They can understand where to pee/poop. They can feed themselves. They can avoid danger and distinguish humans. They can learn to communicate a small number of specific needs
That's enough. Beyond and under this, animal intelligence becomes progressively more useless and annoying
For instance, parrots require a lot of active mental stimulation. They can learn language, hold grudges, but the counterpoint is that they can also be a complete nightmare or get depressed (literally plucking out their own feathers in an act of despair) without stimulation. Conversely, certain small animals are so insanely stupid that they pee everywhere, eat everything and cannot be trained
Dogs are a little more intelligent than cats, but it's focussed in an extremely demanding way. Their intelligence makes them able to learn a huge about of tricks, but it also makes them demanding, stubborn, conscious of power dynamics. It gives them a desire for exploration, companionship and stimulation
Cats are absolutely content exploring 1 house and garden forever without needing the owner to do anything or create a curriculum of daily activities and stimulation
Yes, dogs are more affectionate than cats, but it's not at all obvious that maximizing this attribute makes an optimal pet. Dogs move past affection into dependence, which means they experience severe distress in your absence, need a great deal of reassurance and their mood is either made or broken by the presence and active attention of the owner. Anyone man who has dated a BPD woman understands the extreme inner suffering they experience when you temporarily focus attention away from them. Dogs are highly similar in this regard
Cats occupy the exact point before affection becomes an essential duty. Yes they seek out physical touch, warmth, like you and want to be around you. But they can also tolerate hours or days of absolutely nothing. Actually, most cats are even content just glancing at you from across the room, without the need for you to direct your own attention at them. This is the optimal amount of love, without dependence, if you actually want to have a high functioning life with a pet, and aren't a loser who is making your pet the child you never had
In terms of exercise, dog walks must become a permanent 1X or 2X daily task in a humans calendar regardless of the weather or how the human feels. If you work out the total amount of time wasted across a lifetime, it amounts to years of opportunity cost spent walking in bad weather and scooping up poop. Cats exercise themselves with zero time obligation. Easy win here
Size wise, cats are optimally sized. They're large enough to feel substantial and warm when held with both hands, but small enough that they can be easily moved or thrown around. Pretty much all cats are in the same weight range, but even the fattest ones are easily handled
The spread of dog sizes is way to wide-ranging. Some are way too small and ridiculous (handbag dogs, etc). Some can easily take the lives of unarmed men, and require a huge amount of control maintenance capable of attacking them/others or pulling them into oncoming traffic. Likewise, even relatively small dogs can be extremely strong and dangerous to women or children
Evolution wise, another way to see this is that domestic cats found an optimal size and just stayed there. Dogs are still experimenting wildly, showing they haven't managed to optimize
In terms of communication, animals need to communicate some needs, but overcommunicating is incredibly annoying. Cats effectively only communicate hunger and the desire to go outside, then stop when the request is fulfilled. Dogs usually relentlessly monitor and loudly respond a huge multitude of pointless events, like distant cars, footsteps, far away animals, random noises, people outside the door, etc. Pretty much all of this information was already known to the owner and having a 2nd external creature alert you about what's already happening is both totally pointless and in the case of barking, incredibly annoying
For washing / hygiene, cats need nothing. They lick themselves regularly and if trained well, bury their own poop or cover it with litter. Dogs have to be taken outside, scooped up after and also require proper washes by humans. In essence, a cats body is its own responsibility, whereas a dog hands over basic self-care to the human, despite having even greater intelligence than a cat
In terms of emotions and sociability, dogs are like resonant tuning forks reflecting the general atmosphere of the home or environment. Sometimes this is okay, but mostly it's annoying. If the owner of a dog is stressed, the dog will get stressed, necessitating the owner now inheriting the task of comforting the dog
In the same situation with a cat, the cat usually either doesn't care, or just leaves the room. They rarely require any direct comfort due to others states around them, nor do they ever get truly destabilized unless you actively chase them nonstop or pursue them with a water bucket. Cats have their own emotional rhythm, which is extremely useful if you already have a full life or high stress. It also means they can be a direct comfort to you when it matters, rather than a needy dependent child
If you look at individual traits, you could argue that dogs are "better" than cats. But when you look with specificity at these exact traits, you will find that they each create far more obligation for the owner. Whereas no cat trait ever exceeds the point that it becomes burdensome
So cats aren't particularly high IQ, nor particularly obedient, nor that social, nor energetic, nor are they maxxed out on any particular trait. But what they do have is the optimal level of every single one of these traits, stopping right before the point it would become annoying. If you shifted any attribute up or down slightly, it would quickly become a problem
But as they are, cats sit at the exact balance point of optimal pet-ness
Cats with aura@Catsworldtweet
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