Both cats and dogs are companion animal that makes our life happier and more meaningful. Dogs are often known as man’s best friend where as cats give the impression of cute, fluffy and arrogant ones. So which species is better?
I had my fair share of raising cats and dogs as pets. During my younger years, I had a domestic dog and during my 30s, I had a Shih Tzu. Currently, I have 10 feline as my pet cats.
Here’s some breakdown on the good and bad of cats vs dogs as companion animal.
Dog and cat facts #1 — Tail wagging
We all know dogs wag their tail when they are happy and see their owner. Cats actually wag their tail too! When they are happy, they will have their tail straight up in the air. Both greet their owner when their owner come home
Dog and cat facts #2 — Meal budget
Obviously dog eat a lot more than cat. The meal allocation budget for 1 dog is almost equivalent to 5 cats. This is based on my experience in having a Shih Tzu and 10 cats.
Dog and cat facts #3- Names calling
When you call the dog name, they usually respond and come to you. Cats do too, but it’s a lot more harder to train them in doing so. The difficulty is like x10?
Since I have 10 cats, all of them know their own names. They will have reaction such as looking at you or wagging their tail when you call their name, but none of them will come towards you. They will come and stick around you when they feel like it, not when you feel like it!
However, they surely will come and brush their body on you at least twice a day, usually as soon as you wake up. Great loving feeling.
Dog and cat facts #4 — Toilet business
Toilet business. Cat trump on dog in this case. One of the reasons I like cats more is because of this. Is very convenient and easy to do cat toilet training. In fact, all my 10 cats doesn’t need potty training.
All you need to do is provide a litter tray or litter box and put litter sand into the tray. As long as it’s visible and accessible to the cat, the cat will automatically go to the litter box to do his/her business. Even stray kitten that is 1 month old will know this drill without training.
You just need to scoop and clean the tray twice a day and flush it into your toilet.
**** Warning:- Not a litter sand can be flushed. There is this tofu cat litter sand that can be flushed into toilet bowl.
On the other hand, you will need to bring your dog out at least twice a day out of house to do his/her business. Of course you can toilet train them too in the house but this will make your house smelly.
Check out more on this topic on my other article here
Dog and cat facts #5 — Memory
In theory dog’s memory is much better than cats. Just see Hachiko story and it’s proven that dog will always remember their owner. They are called man’s best friend for a reason.
Cats memory are pretty short. They depends a lot on scent or smell memory. For example, if you bath a newborn kitten or bring the a few months old kitten for surgery, the mother cat will not recognize her kitten once the kitten returned. This is because the scent of her kitten is gone and covered with clinical smell or shampoo smell.
That being said, all my cats still remember me after I return from holiday. The longest time I apart from my cats is 1 month and luckily all still remember me, wagging their tail and meowing when I pick them up from hotel boarding.
Dog and cat facts #6 — Showing their love
In this area, cats are much more superior in showing their love to the owner. They will purr and I have to say, this sound wave is the most relaxation sound for me.
When you wake up, they will jump onto your bed and brush their furry body on you. Sweet.
Dog and cat facts #7 — Running away from home
Dogs is much easier to contain as they can’t jump a high barricade. So the chance of them running away from home and getting lost is pretty low. Even if you let them out for a walk, most of the time, they will find their way home. In contrast, cats will get lost and can’t find their way home if you let them out of your house alone.
Cats can also jump very high and squeeze out of a small outlet. A normal porch with normal height door and gate won’t be able to contain a cat. So, it’s impossible to let your feline alone at the porch as most likely he/she will go missing in no time.
Dog and cat facts #8 — Cleanliness
You need to bath your dog at least one in a couple of weeks. Otherwise, he/she will become very smelly. However the smell is also largely dependent on the food the dog eats.
Cat’s always groom themselves, by licking their own fur daily. This is consider a bath for them. If you are lazy, in fact, you don’t need to bath them and they won’t be smelly at all.
Check out more on this topic on my other medium article here
Dog and cat facts #9 — Breeds
Most common breeds are domestic which applies for both dog and cat.
Among popular dog breeds, we have golden retriever, rottweiler, labrador, beagle, border collie, pomeranian, pug, doberman, shih tzu, german shephard, husky, shiba inu, poodle and the list goes on.
Among popular cat breed we have ragdoll, british shorthair, bengal cat, persian cat, siamese cat, munchkin cat, maine coon, american bobtail.
My dog is a Shih Tzu, and my cats consist of 7 domestic cats, 1 Maine Coon mix domestic and 1 American Bobtail. The one you see in the picture above is Shih Tzu and American Bobtail.
Conclusion of dog and cat review
I can write a lot more facts but I guess these 9 facts can give you insight on whether you prefer to have dog or cat as your next pet. I end this article strongly advocating and supporting in adoption. Please adopt and don’t buy.
You can easily adopt and choose your preferred breed in petfinder website. This is a website where the communities post pets for adoption. You can get a lot of breeds here and it is free.
