I’ve always wondered this, and I’m sure it’s been asked before, but I want to ask in a slightly more probing manner:
Did cats and dogs evolve together? When did they stop evolving? Did they continue evolving after we domesticated them, or is that tautological? Is there any evolutionary (think group selection, and then think laterally) purpose of dogs and cats chasing each other in circles within human society?
For more context, see this thread and “follow the links”
I have faith you will think of my questions in the proper manner. Hopefully
Just in case, here’s why I said evolution: behaviors are evolved at some level, right? Instinct are behaviors evolved at a genetic level, explicit personal behaviors are based on evolving pattern recognition within the brain, and social behaviors are based on emergent social evolution dependent on the previous two.
So if dogs and cats don’t get along, was it evolved at some level? Does every species in one genus have a strong disregard to for every species in the other genus? Basically, I really want a good biological answer to this. Anecdotes are OK too.
P.S. I once had a dog that I swear acted like a cat. No joke! Her name was Puff, just like the magic dragon.
A student once went to a master and asked how he could attain detachment. The master told him that he must sit down and meditate for a year. After a year of meditating, the student said, “Master, I have now achieved detachment.” The master immediately punched the student in the face. The student asked, “Master, why did you punch me in the face?” The master answered, “To detach you from your detachment.”
Dogs are carnivores. They will kill and eat any animal that they can catch. Cats are small, furry, delicious animals, so dogs see them as prey. A dog that has been raised with cats will “get along” with cats, but generally this doesn’t happen in the wild.
Note that big dogs kill little dogs all the time, so it’s not just dog-on-cat violence you need to worry about.
Oh, sure.
Big cats will kill and eat any animal they can, including humans. Tigers that have been raised by humans will not see their owners as prey, but they are still very, very dangerous. Just roughhousing could cause fatal injury…
Well, big cats (lions and tigers) will probably be extinct in the wild (outside of zoos) in our lifetime. So, there really aren’t going to be that many chances for the few remaining wild cats to come across a dog pack (dog packs tend to live in or near cities, big cats are not city dwellers).
hoenikker, whatever it is you think you are doing, knock it off. Stop starting threads in reference to your “kingdom of the blind” thread, which you have already admitted was a joke. You have now started four such threads, in spite of the the first two threads having been closed. If you have a serious question not connected to the “kingdom of the blind,” you may ask it. But starting another in GQ on this will get a warning.
How wild is wild though?