Bone to Pick

Last night I had my first big outing since surgery. I went to pick up a couple of cds from a friend of mine in Highland. It felt so good to get out. Upon my return home there was a little dog at my door. This dog to be exact:

Her name is Daisy. She's a sweet puppy, but silly, silly me thought she'd have the good sense to go back to her home. That's exactly what I thought she'd done until 2:00 a.m. when she started barking, whining, and scratching my solid, knotty alder door. At this point I realize she's probably lost, only what do you do about it at 2:00 a.m.? I didn't want to let her in because she was a little neurotic and I knew she and Hank would make each other crazy and that translates in me wanting to beat them both. I also didn't want to take the chance of her going potty on the floor. Sure, I could lock her in the bathroom, but then I've got her barking, whining, and scratching my knotty alder bathroom door all night, and that would be lots louder. In short, I didn't sleep last night. Neither did Hank. Not that I care if he slept or not, because about 20 hours of his day is usually spent sleeping. Here's what he did all night:
I called Daisy's owner this morning and she came to get her. Apparently, she was only one street away from her house and I realized I wasn't dealing with the sharpest pup in the litter. However, now I'm grumpy and sleep deprived and I have a bone to pick with you cat haters of the world. I get a lot of guff from people who say things like, "the only good cat is a dead cat", or think maybe the only use for a cat is to torture it. I don't hate dogs and even if I did, I wouldn't tell people that I think their dog should be dead or tortured. Here's what I know about my cat experiences vs. my dog experiences. Keep in mind, I've owned plenty of both.

Like a dog, my cat greets me at the door every single day when I get home. He also comes when I call him about 90% of the time. Unless you have a super-trained dog, I don't know as you're odds are a lot better for a dog. My cat snuggles and purrs and is really quite good company. He never smells and is actually really clean all of the time. Dogs, on the other hand, stink. Period. End of story. If you try to tell me you don't have a stinky dog, then you are just used to his/her smell, you bathe your dog several times a week, or you are lying. My kitty doesn't whine or cry or beg. It's rare I hear a meow out of him at all. I can leave my cat home alone over night and I don't have to worry about chewed up property or cleaning up pee and poop because there was no one to let him out. He doesn't bark at or try to attack people when they knock at the door. In fact, unless you happen to have someone with you under 4 feet tall when you come to my house, after a few minutes, he's actually quite friendly to company. (He used to like little kids too, but he's had more than his fair share of little people chasing him, pulling his tail, and carrying him around by the neck.) I'm not trying to tell you that cats are perfect. There have been times when I've wanted to drop kick my cat across the room when he's playing in the blinds, using the couch as a scratching post, or incessantly snatching tampons to play with. For those of you that want to use the whole loyalty argument, my cat loves me better than anyone and 10 times out of 10 will pick me over anyone or anything else. I also think that, generally speaking, I've probably got an above-average cat and have always been lucky when it comes to my cats. What I am trying to say is that I think cats are a lot quieter, neater, and cleaner than dogs, and do not deserve the mean, hostile feelings some people have for them. Plus, also, I read and absolutely loved Marley and Me but that only further proves my point. In short, unless you have been brutally attacked and injured by a cat (which, by the way, dogs do every day) I'm not really interested in hearing your mean comments about them.

P.S. Inkey, it just occurred to me that you might think this is directed at you, but it's not. I'm just bitter about my dog barking, scratching, whining sleepless night and needed to get that off of my chest for cat lovers everywhere. I love your very cat-hating guts.