Cats or Dogs?

[Alec]

How did you get your cat to walk into walls?

[Novdid]

I actually don't like any of them...

[hippie91]

she opens the doorknob type, we don't have any of the lever kind


the other cat is just naturally REALLY dumb it's really funny watching him be stupid

[Snake-Eyes]

I've always found animal personalities to be especially interesting. For instance, since my cat (actually, my dad's cat, at the end) died, they've got two more to replace it (thank my brother, the emotional toll of the first dying had them declaring they'd never get another pet).

Anyway, these cats look a lot alike, since they're from the same litter. But they couldn't be more different personality-wise. While one can't seem to get to me fast enough when I visit (ostensibly to rub some of that shedding hair off on my legs), the other tends to run and hide until I've been sitting still long enough to appear to have become a part of the furniture in the room (and it does this EVERY time). The really interesting part is watching how they react to a flashlight beam on the wall/floor/ceiling in a darkened room. One seems to think it's something to be caught, tortured, and eaten, and so will actually run around the room chasing it (or stand staring 'waiting for it to come within reach if the beam is on the wall or ceiling'). The other glances at it once, then goes on about its business as if there isn't even anything happening in the room, as if to say 'quit wasting my time with this useless gag'.

Dogs are the same way. Back when I still had three (one now, fortunately, heh- they take up quite a bit of space around the house!), I found that one of the three would sit and watch the television whenever there was something on showing dogs (some dogfood commercials, a few movies like Benji, etc.), while the other two seemed totally oblivious that the television was even capable of showing an image. Of course, this same dog could often be tricked into jumping up from a restful sleep, fur bristling, barking loudly, and running to the door. All by having one of those stupid Publisher's Clearing House commercials show on the TV (where they ring the doorbell, which sounded an aweful lot like the doorbell of our townhouse. We recorded that on the VCR, btw. I guess we can be cruel too, sometimes, so cats don't have a monopoly on that )

Somehow I don't think my life would have been quite the same without the companionship each of these animals gave me and my family.