Let the battle begin!
I do love dogs, but they’re far more needy than cats.
I do love cats, but they’re far more aloof than dogs.
Hijack with gerbils/parakeets, etc.
Extra points for anyone who has a three-toed sloth. They seem like the best pets ever.
I don’t think either is a “better” pet-- it all depends on what an owner wants out of the pet and how much time they want to invest in it.
You have obviously never been owned by a Siamese cat. My Siamese keeps me under constant supervision when I’m in the house, and if I dare to go out for a couple of hours, she worries constantly. When I get back home, she chews me out for leaving her. She needs lots of attention, not just from me, but from everyone who comes into the house. Right now, she’s snoozing in her cozy nook, not 10 feet away from me. When I leave this room, she’ll wake up and follow me to wherever I go in the house.
I don’t think that even non Siamese cats are truly aloof, if they’ve been raised by affectionate humans. True, they don’t jump up on people and lick them QUITE as much as dogs do, but every cat I’ve ever had living with me has been quite affectionate.
I enjoy dogs, but I’m allergic to them. I love the company of cats.
I do love our dog, but the cat and parakeet do not try to drown the owners with slobber.
I do love our cat, but the parakeet and dog seem to better appreciate one-on-one conversation.
I do love our parakeet, but the dog and cat make much less noise (unless they happen to see one another).
In a general sense, I prefer snotty cats to both groups of slobbery dogs and noisy parakeets. At least I can ignore the cats right back.
Aloof? You mean like the one that’s sfiiitign…adittttin…sitting on my keyboard right now and won’t move? The same one who sits by the door everyday waiting for my mother to come home from work and go to the bathroom 'cause he knows she’ll be stitting down, and pet him? Or the one that attatches herself to mom’s lap the entire evening? Every evening. Or the stray who adopted me, and howerever many times I threw him out, I’d wake up with him sleeping on my head. What is this “aloof cat” of which you speak?
I love 'em both. My kitties spend as much time as possible on top of one of us or snuggled up with each other. My doggies are best buds and love us and the cats unconditionally. What a wunnerful family of fur-people I have.
hmmm.
Well, I love both. My cat is the best cat of all the cats and I love him to bits. He’s… like… seriously perfect. The only thing that could possibly make him better would be if he’d do my homework for me or something.
And my dog… hmm. My dog is very strange, very twitchy and neurotic, incredibly needy, and annoys the tar out of me. She’s just not normal. My mom’s dog is her polar opposite in ways I’m not sure exactly how to explain. But… if anybody’s ever had a weimaraner and a labrador, you probably know what I mean. Mine is the weimaraner and hers is the labrador.
So when it comes to one vs. the other on both aspects, there’s the sort of rational decision and the emotional one.
My dog vs. my mom’s- everyone hates the weimaraner. She totally wins when it comes to being annoying, needy, bizarre, disgusting, noisy, and weird in a sort of way that… she seems like she doesn’t love you, but she DESPERATELY wants you to love her. Whereas the lab is loving, friendly, smart, normal, and even when she’s annoying she’s not THAT annoying. But Toto is my dog and Tammy is not and someone has to stand up for Toto and love her and make sure she gets the same number of treats and walks and so on as Tammy. And although I guess I don’t really like her better, I love her most.
And my dog vs. my cat- I’ve already describe Toto, and my kitty is sort of… the opposite in a different way. He’s not even close to needy, but is very loving. He’s not at all neurotic or twitchy. He loves to play. He, unlike Tammy, gives you the feeling that he loves you and ONLY you. He at least SEEMS smart. He makes very little noise and is rarely disgusting (he doesn’t even cough up hairballs or puke on the carpet or anything). I swear to you this cat is perfect.
BUT!
When I think about my future and think about my apartment and stuff like… that I wouldn’t really need a house because it’s probably going to be just me for most of my life, the idea of having only cats and no dogs makes me SO sad… whereas the idea of having just a dog or two and no cats is something I think I could live with if I had to.
So dogs win.
I have loved and needed both, but in the end I feel more connected with cats. I know cats are supposed to be emotionally aloof, but I have found them to be the opposite.
Cats.
Cats aren’t aloof at all. They’re just not obsequious.
My mom, in one of her least stellar moments, chose, despite my entreaties not to, leave our cat alone at a friend’s house while workmen were in our apartment. We were his third owners and he had issues about being abandoned. Mother and her friend left the cat at friend’s house and went out shopping. When they returned, he had had a psychotic break. He had clawed gouges in the windowsill trying to get out. He had to be handled with leather gloves. 24 hours later at the vet’s, after enough tranquilizers, the vet told me, to knock out a horse, he was still insane. He had to be put down. 
Someone sent me this email recently. It cracked me up:
I’m cat people. I like dogs, but I’m no longer up to the responsibility. Cats are waaaaay easier.
Cats are whores. Some cats think they are dogs. Dogs are too cool for school.
Dogs in a landslide.
Cats by a double landslide.
Don’t like dogs, never have, never will.
Gimme cats every time
Hands down cats every time. I don’t have the energy to invest in a dog even if I wanted one
Cats. Why is this even a question?
Dogs rule. I want to like cats, but they kind of creep me out. It’s that look they get that says, “You have to sleep, sometime.”
You should know better than this on the SDMB. There is ALWAYS a right, wrong, better, best, and a choice that will turn you gay. We just have to fight until we sort it all out.
I like cats fine but they really do depend on being mysterious and aloof to prop up their image. Cats really aren’t very bright at all especially compared to most dogs. Just look at the size of their head. It doesn’t have a lot of cargo space to house the data processing department if you know what I mean (Chihuahuas are stupid for much the same reason). Cats want you to think that they could do much better tricks than dogs if they ever chose to. Like the tough kid in the back of the class that is always too “cool” to turn in the work, cats use this as a smoke screen. There really are some major learning disabilities if you keep probing past the ruse.
I love both. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.
Kalhoun, that cracked me up too!
cats.
i have had both.
it’s still cats all the way.
they’re clean, self sufficient, you can leave them safely for a weekend.
they don’t slobber, they don’t make noise and they cuddle.
what’s better than cuddling?
the only thing they *can’t * do is shark dance like
the velociraptor can! 
