I’m a dude. I don’t dig cats, mostly because I would never willingly keep a box of shit in my house. Full stop. What you do at your house is not my problem. I don’t care if there is litter that smells like roses, it is still a box of shit in the house. It is not for me. If you’re fine with it, that’s cool.
I don’t dig cat owners, largely because of threads like this.
The only active hate I feel is toward cat owners who believe they have “outdoor” cats, and let them run about outside unrestricted.
Tried it. Stepped on a loose crystal barefoot one too many times – they’re worse than LEGOs. Then again, having small children loose and running around your home is IMHO more filth-inducing than having cats, so YMMV.
I trained an adult rescue cat to ring a bell to be let outside to poop in 72 hours.
A. set aside 3 days you’ll be in the house
B. Hang a bell on a doorknob of a door that leads directly outside.
C. The instant the cat sniffs at the bell open the door and put the cat outside.
D. Getting the cat to take interest in the bell can be assisted by a tactful application of tuna smell. The instant the cat sniffs at / touches the bell, open the door and put the cat outside.
E. You have to keep your eye on the cat every minute. During this critical period if you can’t keep your eye on the cat, take the bell off the door. At any second the cat shows an interest in the bell, you must be there to open the door.
F. After day 1, you introduce pawing the bell. I just waited until the cat went next to the door and I lifted one paw up and tapped the bell, then opened the door.
G. By late day 3, the cat would go to the door tap the bell and I’d open it. Cat went outside and did its business.
Me too! I super-severely hate cats and I’m female. And this weird explanation that cat-haters just don’t personally know the ‘right’ cat or whatever? Please…I’ve had and have been around hundreds of house cats. I used to love them when I was a child but came to my senses. I love other animals, though I do dislike (not hate) little long-haired lap “dogs.”
The 2013 revival seems to be more on pointe than the old one… I hate this ongoing sexist “men are insecure and hate cats” thing. If ONLY I could find a guy around here that wasn’t attached to a cat!
I hate cats because they are aloof and merely tolerate your existence; as if they are doing you a favor by letting you feed and shelter them. Dogs fucking love you, unconditionally.
My cats will, by and large, merely tolerate you. But they fucking love me, unconditionally. They get up from their naps to meet me in the living room when I come home. They follow me from room to room and settle themselves on my lap or chest or the arm or back of the couch whenever I settle in one spot for a while. The older one threads herself into my arms when I sleep at night, like she’s a teddy bear, and the younger one drapes himself across my feet. Sometimes on snowy nights I wake up and the older one is standing on the headboard, looking out the window and growling at the snowplow, as though she’s to protect me from the big scary machine that will come eat me up.
My dogs also love me unconditionally. They also love you unconditionally. They love pretty much everyone unconditionally. Except the mailman, who is evil and must be destroyed. Unless we open the door to sign for something, in which case they love him too.
Over the decades of keeping most kinds of animals from lizards to horses I have narrowed down the list of animals I enjoy the most and cats aren’t on that list. But I don’t hate cats or any other animal.
Okay, cockroaches and ground wasps.
Why cats don’t make my gold star list is that they are uncontrollably and severely damaging to the environment when outside and I don’t believe in keeping cats enclosed any more than I believe in keeping birds in cages. If I wanted to keep a warmblooded pet indoors I would get a rat. Much more adapted to the size of the space.
Also, I am easily irritated by people who love cats. Cats are not actually regally mysterious, imperious, etc. demanding of subservience blah blah. In fact they are rather stupid compared to dogs, and generally are not capable of the complexity of relationship that dogs are, because they are essentially solitary predators like most felids. They have certain inherent mannerisms and physicality due to their original style of life.
For whatever reason, people attribute all sorts of properties and project all sorts of anthropomorphic crap onto cats. Of course they have emotions and affections like all higher animals, but because they are not nearly as similar/adapted to us as dogs are (they are also a far more recent domestication), we don’t understand them very well.
I suppose because they are too small to be a threat to us, we are able to blithely pretend all sorts of things about them – it doesn’t matter if we are wrong about their motives, like there would be if they were the size of jaguars.
Probably because cats are very feminine. They hardly ever play, don’t greet you when you come home, scratch up things, and are generally unfriendly. Dogs, however, are very playful, loving, and loyal animals. Both of my dogs, when I come home, act like I have been gone for a year. They are extremely excited to have their masters home.
I do spend a lot of time around cats everyday at my girlfriends house. She barely knows where her cats are half of the time and they only show up when they are being fed. They also leave furballs around the house and personally, I cant stand having to have a smelly ass litter box inside the house.
Dogs will love you unconditionally no matter what happens. They are also great protectors. And you can actually play with a dog, you can go throw the ball or play fight with them or take them for a swim.
I don’t get how people think cats are unfriendly. Sure, they’re aloof and they take a while to get to know you, but once they do (with exceptions, of course–some cats are just antisocial, just like some people are) they can be very affectionate and playful. A couple of my cats like to play fetch. I usually get mobbed when I come home, as they wind under my legs and do their best to trip me while they show me how happy they are that I’m home. When I or the spouse sit down, we immediately sprout at least one cat, and they always want to be involved whenever we’re doing anything.
Everything you said about dogs is why I don’t prefer them (I won’t say I dislike them–I like some dogs a lot–but I wouldn’t want any of my own). I don’t want a creature that’s slavishly devoted to me, makes me into his world, and loves everyone equally. I like having to earn my cats’ affection, and when they come to me and head-butt me or rub their face on mine to make me part of their “team,” I feel like it’s honest, not just something built into their DNA.
Sure, sometimes I fantasize about having a big wolfy-type dog (a Husky or German Shepherd, maybe) that I can take for walks and that will protect me if somebody tries to break in, but then I think about all the daily walks, poop cleanup (cats might have litterboxes, but at least the poop is concentrated and easy to clean up) and other requirements of dog ownership, and I’m happy to have my cats.
I am not a cat lover. I love all animals. I have never met a bird, reptile or mammal that I hated. What I do not understand is what is wrong with people.Why would someone go on a post with cat lovers and talk about killing, maiming, stapling and eating cats? I eat animals, but I would never hurt another person’s pet…or eat them. People have pet chickens, cows and pigs. It is downright wicked to post such things. Every animal has it virtues and its vices. Simple as that. Some of these posts were just painful to read.
