@John Brunner It is entirely possible to truly love a cat. That depth of feeling will present itself most strongly when you lose the pet. It hurts. Very much. Frank
The dog (fox terrier mix) was a real sweetie. Sometimes the cat would be laying on the arm of the couch and the dog would stand up and paw at the cat until the cat would relent and give the dog a bath. But every once in a while you would see the dog's demeanor change, and get this "I don't know what I should do" look of monumental internal conflict on her face. She would look at me, look at the cat, whimper, then go after the cat. I sounded like WW2, all the snarling and the yowling and the rolling around on the floor. You swore there would be buckets of blood, but neither had a scratch. They would go to their respective corners, and a few minutes later the cat would saunter by and everything was back to normal. I never knew if the cat wondered what she had done to deserve it, or if the cat was sending taunting subliminal signals that only a dog can perceive.
@Beth Gallagher If one is to believe people do NOT mistreat animals, one should pay attention to the ASPCA commercials filling the t-v ads with images of suffering pets....... https://secure.aspca.org/donate/ps-...VERvnCh0OJAZMEAAYASAAEgInHfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds Frank
The reason that Cats are more defensive and self-protective than Dogs is that they have not been domesticated to the will of domineering humans, and thus retain their natural instincts for self-preservation. You have to really make an effort to approach a strange cat with friendship in mind! Say hello to Annie, our Calico, sprawling on our kitchen table. Hal
It is interesting that when you have a dog in the house, you have a pet. But when you have a cat in the house, you have an animal closer to its natural state. I'm sure we've all heard variations of this: A dog looks at its owner and thinks "You feed me, you take care of me, you give me shelter. You must be a god!" A cat looks at its owner and thinks "You feed me, you take care of me, you give me shelter. I must be a god!"
@Beth Gallagher Your post #33 was then misleading, as I took it to imply the tormentor's mentality was being questioned rather than the pet's. Frank