2020 pet magazine

Page 46 2020 PET MAGAZINE LINCOLN DAILY NEWS JANUARY 23, 2020 dogs, as if they were secretly waiting to attack when the time is right. Frankly, cats are often depicted as unemotional creatures that don’t care at all whether someone is in the house or not. Cat owners are depicted in similar ways. Cat owners are thought of as shut-ins, especially when more than one cat is involved. Cat people are also viewed as strangely neurotic, as if the presence of a cat means a person is weird. Cat owners are viewed as being somehow less caring of others (and yet secretly lonely at the same time). Cats are also more typically associated with women than men. Much like dogs, cats have a certain logic to their actions. Cats are only destructive because of boredom. A cat that “wants to destroy” is usually bored by their environment. Knocking over things is their way of trying to get attention. It’s frustrating, but it’s not evil. Touching things is how cats explore their environment. A dog learns through smell; it’s why they love to sit on the furniture, because it smells like the pack. A cat learns through two things - touch and body language. A cat does not respond to calls as often (although they can) because people are just loud cats in their eyes. Think of it like this - we don’t like if someone walks up to us and starts immediately shouting in our face. To a cat, that’s what humans are doing when we call for them. We’re shouting when we really don’t need to. When we do that, we come across as one predator to another, and that means a challenge. Cats are not like dogs when it comes to packs. Cats are solitary creatures by nature. They can live with people, other cats, and even dogs just fine, but they prefer to be alone from time to time. This does not mean a cat is not attached to people around it. A cat will absolutely snuggle on the couch, and it will run to you when you come home. It just takes a bit more time than it does for dogs. Basically, cats need time to trust. Remember, other animals are competition for resources to a cat, and that includes humans. This is different from dogs, who are descended from animals that typically share with other members of their family. Some of these stereotypes have a grain of truth to them. However, they are massively overblown. If dog and cat people are patient, and actually take the time to learn about the other and understand why these animals are the way they are, everything starts to click in place. Ultimately, the two are not the same species, and it helps to not try to treat them as such. We just have to set aside these preconceived notions and actually work to understand our pets. [Derek Hurley] Lilith