Men are Dogs and Women are Cats

My friend remarked on Sunday how cats are the women of the domesticated animal world. Does that mean dogs are the men? Are men dogs and women cats?

Our cat runs the house. He always has. He's managed to terrify into submission every animal we've brought into our household during the past 13 years. Fish, guinae pigs, hamsters, other cats - they've all quickly learned to be very. afraid. of. the. cat. The cat doesn't hiss or let the claws fly. No, that would be too easy. Instead, he simply narrows his eyes and somehow manages to put the entire animal kingdom on notice with "the look."

When the cat discovered that he could tame the furry and finned ones, he figured he could take over the unfurry ones too. Most of our friends are now afraid of "the psycho cat." We don't help the situation because we are always saying, "He's really nice but watch it, he can turn on a dime." He can. And he does. Not many friends have seen the inside of our house.

The cat is no dummy. He's a perfect gentleman to the one who feeds him and who keeps his litter box clean and who lets him in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out.

We got our dog, Daisy, in 2004. She is the consummate black lab. She does everything at full speed. There's nothing subtle about her. That alone was reason enough for "pyscho cat" to pick her as his new terror-toy.

I think part of it is because the cat is completely overwhelmed by the dog. After all, she is big and bumbling and like a burst in that she's everywhere at once. That's so uncool. Clearly, the dog has to be stopped.

Meanwhile, Daisy tries everything within her little dog pea-brain to make friends with the cat. Much to the cat's dismay, "the look" does nothing to derail the dog. Daisy trots up to the cat with a toy, only to experience the usual charge, swipe, hiss. She tries to nuzzle the cat and it's charge, swipe, hiss. She walks in a room and it's charge, swipe, hiss. Poor Daisy.

So, are cats the women of the domesticated animal world? And are dogs the men? I'm not sayin'.