The Difference between Cats and Dogs

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Mr Robert A Heinlein gave the same advice in his book " The Door Into Summer"
"You must never laugh at them (cats)"
"Not because they aren't funny, they're extremely comical. But they have no sense of humour and it offends them. Oh, a cat won't scratch you for laughing, he'll simply stalk off and you'll have trouble making friends with him."

[fringe_dweller]

woah didnt know that jj!, he knew his cats! well trained

[Night Owl]

Originally Posted by Gargoyle_Steve

Night Owl I've deleted most of my previous post, simply because emotions are obviously now running on a different level to what they were, and it's apparently water under the bridge. I sincerely hope I didn't create the impression that freedom of thought is frowned upon by the community at large here, because that simply isn't true.

Cheers to you both!

----------------------------------------------------

For what it's worth - just so my own opinions aren't thought t have motivated my post - I love my dogs, and am very much inclined towards protecting nature and animals where posible, however I have done a fair amount of hunting in the past, I have shot feral cats, foxes and wild pigs amongst other things.

And ..... if I had the power to delete all cane toads in Australia from existence with the push of a single button I'd do it so quick you'd have trouble seeing me!

I'm usually only concerned about an arguement if I start bleeding as a result of it. I figure absolutely nobody is ever going to suffer anything as serious as a paper cut from partaking in a joust of words in an online forum, no matter what the topic, or how heated it gets. It simply can't hurt, sort of a 'sticks and stones' sort of thing. In fact it is probably good for most people to safely vent off steam in a forum, and for others to have their sensibilities slapped around a bit as well. When that happens regularly you find you are more willing to accept others opinions as being different than your own, and find you won't actually melt or die if someone doesn't agree with you or do what you want in all other areas of your life.

Or, it isn't good for your mental health if you get everything your own way.

Of some concern to me is that the social engineers of society have somehow made it appear that if anyone gets angry about anything, and dare express their feelings, they are judged to be a dangerous lunatic or something. For example, when this happened to me...

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=27483

I'm sure I was well within the emotional operating parameters for an adult human male in the circumstances. I didn't assault anyone, I never made threats to kill, but I let them know I wasn't going to be a frikken door mat, and just sign on the line for the sake of their convenience, and just accept that I had just better cop it sweet and hug my $1000 of broken useless scope. I had paid $90 to have my first scope delivered, and some careless bonehead had destroyed it through sheer negligence. If I don't have a right to get angry in those circumstances, when would I have?

The denying of and repression of basic human emotions (such as getting pissed off) can lead to some very unhealthy behaviour in the long run, such as individuals 'Going Postal' when their emotional tank eventually and violently ruptures.

[fringe_dweller]

Originally Posted by Night Owl

as individuals 'Going Postal' when their emotional tank eventually and violently ruptures.

its called going ice-icle around here

[omnivorr]

...the difference between "humans" and cats and dogs is a tiny one that few humans can percieve without long and attentive association with those animals....

they lack conceit.

in an inverse proportion it can be observed that those humans that pontificate as to the "lesser" being of those animals do themselves exhibit gross manifestation of that trait that cats and dogs lack.

it is the sad result of millenia-long "marriage" between species of different longevity of individuals, and different intelligence.... the longer-lived less-intelligent have deluded themselves into thinking they are superior...

the supermarket-fed off-the-shelf EGOnaut wanks about what's feral and dribbles about the philosophical rectitude of their own pursuits, all Nike'd safe and glam.... ...you know who you are... Next time you plant your flaccid arse on an ant that bites you.. don't demonise the ant!!

think how un-vigilant your corpulant complacency has made you... how "unfit" you are to exist. You may condemn a cat because it kills but does not eat... but then, sloth-ignorant and arrogant, ..you know nothing of keeping yourself "KEEN" (in EVERY sense of the word)

in the cocoon of comfort these last 500yrs of earth-destruction bequeathed you... YOU dare to condemn those who faithful to your kind followed, indeed, were "blackbirded"-for your (forebears' )convenience, ... then discarded rather than kept (a burden of expense)...... (whether human or otherwise) .....and now you despise.

YOU new-born scoin of hypocrisy..... DARE you to make judgement of those exploited by your forebears to render you your comforts and self-idolatry
.......lazy nothing bucket p*ss-filled self-recycling fountain of vanity you are!!!

take heed of the black-death.... just prior, it was fashionable to hurl cats from high places...a cultish christian (sic) fascination.. and then the un-mitigated population of (no doubt "christian" ) rats bore the flea-vectored bubonic "germ".....

but nevermind...mummy's precious... if daddy's dollars don't preserve you.. you'll only burn with the rest of us.

and something "feral" may just lovingly lick your bones.

:- if I have offended anyone, ..if they recognise themselves in any way depicted in what I have said; ..then I offer my deepest apologies for being the one who confronted them with reality. I could only wish that someone else had done it to them much much sooner!!!!!!!

[xelasnave]

What a post there Omnivorr...
Never have I read something so deep about stuff so shallow. Great stuff of passion and observation.

We are all trapped to a degree in the world you describe but some are fortunate to see the box we find ourselves in ..if only to pity the others who can not.

I find each day some creature in difficulty that once I would have passed by or killed for convenience... a spider stuck in a bottle or a frog trapped inside the house or an ant in the toilet...and the funny thing each day one presents to me to test my resolve.. now I help them out and in that little act I give them respect such that I can respect my compassion and desire not to be another elite human...By saving them or giving them another chance at life I really save myself.

Folk dont understand the implications of that observer thing they speak of in general relativity.. an ant is the center of its Universe just as we are each the center of our own.
Maitain the passion.
alex

[xelasnave]

Jeanette I love the compassion you have and very comforting to see the creatures you care for...

You are a very nice person.

I have found cats are very sensitive ..they remember if you have been harse I have no doubt and I think they will never forgive you if up punish them ...folk think they are standoffish but I think they just dont get involved if they sence you are not kind.

Dogs have feelings also I have no doubt.. mine have such interesting personalities ... the boy is like a human male as he needs assuring he is in control.. the girls know if I am upset and in their way try to comfort me when I am flat..they know when I am in pain also I feel.

I have never had a horse I really would like to get a young one and let it in the house like the dogs and be one of us... and experience its personality... I guess they would go outside when they needed to like the dogs.

alex

[xelasnave]

AND for those who think I am crazy and attribute it to dope or booze I say this being different does not need to be explained that way... I am one who does not need approval from others and happy with who I am.. If you think I am crazy thats OK but I am maybe more at peace than most, so I consider my state a wonderful one to enjoy.
alex

[netwolf]

Jeanette, i needed some comic relief. But then i read the rest of the thread..

It is easier to do a thing than to undo it. We have domesticated animals for our own needs for companionship. Why are we not satisfied with the companionship of other human beings? We casually speak of desexing animals, is this not a cruelty? Simply to breed these animals as companions and then to take responsibility of protecting other animals by desexing or hunting those that are not that have been abandoned, is it not hypocritical? They need to be cared for, the must be desexed to protect others. Why dont we care for all of them and desex them all to protect us..
Or would it be better to live and let live and where possible help them along. To accept them as they are and not try to make them as we need them to be.

Regards
Fahim

[Night Owl]

Originally Posted by omnivorr

...the difference between "humans" and cats and dogs is a tiny one that few humans can percieve without long and attentive association with those animals....

they lack conceit.

in an inverse proportion it can be observed that those humans that pontificate as to the "lesser" being of those animals do themselves exhibit gross manifestation of that trait that cats and dogs lack.

it is the sad result of millenia-long "marriage" between species of different longevity of individuals, and different intelligence.... the longer-lived less-intelligent have deluded themselves into thinking they are superior...

the supermarket-fed off-the-shelf EGOnaut wanks about what's feral and dribbles about the philosophical rectitude of their own pursuits, all Nike'd safe and glam.... ...you know who you are... Next time you plant your flaccid arse on an ant that bites you.. don't demonise the ant!!

think how un-vigilant your corpulant complacency has made you... how "unfit" you are to exist. You may condemn a cat because it kills but does not eat... but then, sloth-ignorant and arrogant, ..you know nothing of keeping yourself "KEEN" (in EVERY sense of the word)

in the cocoon of comfort these last 500yrs of earth-destruction bequeathed you... YOU dare to condemn those who faithful to your kind followed, indeed, were "blackbirded"-for your (forebears' )convenience, ... then discarded rather than kept (a burden of expense)...... (whether human or otherwise) .....and now you despise.

YOU new-born scoin of hypocrisy..... DARE you to make judgement of those exploited by your forebears to render you your comforts and self-idolatry
.......lazy nothing bucket p*ss-filled self-recycling fountain of vanity you are!!!

take heed of the black-death.... just prior, it was fashionable to hurl cats from high places...a cultish christian (sic) fascination.. and then the un-mitigated population of (no doubt "christian" ) rats bore the flea-vectored bubonic "germ".....

but nevermind...mummy's precious... if daddy's dollars don't preserve you.. you'll only burn with the rest of us.

and something "feral" may just lovingly lick your bones.

:- if I have offended anyone, ..if they recognise themselves in any way depicted in what I have said; ..then I offer my deepest apologies for being the one who confronted them with reality. I could only wish that someone else had done it to them much much sooner!!!!!!!

I see you speak fluent urban environmentalist.

[Night Owl]

Originally Posted by netwolf

Jeanette, i needed some comic relief. But then i read the rest of the thread..

It is easier to do a thing than to undo it. We have domesticated animals for our own needs for companionship. Why are we not satisfied with the companionship of other human beings? We casually speak of desexing animals, is this not a cruelty? Simply to breed these animals as companions and then to take responsibility of protecting other animals by desexing or hunting those that are not that have been abandoned, is it not hypocritical? They need to be cared for, the must be desexed to protect others. Why dont we care for all of them and desex them all to protect us..
Or would it be better to live and let live and where possible help them along. To accept them as they are and not try to make them as we need them to be.

Regards
Fahim

Its fine de-sexing them, but how are you going to catch and desex the multiudes of the damn things that live, breed, kill and die in the wild? For example, I've hunted the damn things 300km from the nearest town or house in the deserts of the Northern Territory, where the only water around must have been the blood of other native mamals.

Also, your garden varierty urban moggie doesn't lose its interest in snuffing just about everything it can catch just because it sleeps on the foot of your bed, or had its nads surgically removed.

It really comes down to how suitable for this country a pet cat really is. For example, if I wanted to import an exotic pest animal the customs at the airport would flog me for trying to import an animal that could threaten Australias A to Z crop etc. But its ok to have a domestic pet, that if it buggers off over the back fence for keeps, and drops a litter of kittens, it will wreak absolute havoc on native animals for generations. Which is precisely what has happened.

Maybe we should make it compulsory for cat owners to also own a Cane Toad?

Why won't cat lovers stick up for Cane Toads and the environmental damage they do? I know why, because cane Toads aren't 'cute and cudly', and nobody wants one sitting on their lap, let alone to pat it!

Lucky saltwater crocs don't have fur and purr when you scratch them behind the ear! There would be a lot less hippies in the world, and a few more content fat crocs!

[Night Owl]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

What a post there Omnivorr...
Never have I read something so deep about stuff so shallow. Great stuff of passion and observation.

We are all trapped to a degree in the world you describe but some are fortunate to see the box we find ourselves in ..if only to pity the others who can not.

I find each day some creature in difficulty that once I would have passed by or killed for convenience... a spider stuck in a bottle or a frog trapped inside the house or an ant in the toilet...and the funny thing each day one presents to me to test my resolve.. now I help them out and in that little act I give them respect such that I can respect my compassion and desire not to be another elite human...By saving them or giving them another chance at life I really save myself.

Folk dont understand the implications of that observer thing they speak of in general relativity.. an ant is the center of its Universe just as we are each the center of our own.
Maitain the passion.
alex

You may not believe this, but I agree entirely with you! But I also realised many years ago that there is an infinite amount of suffering involved in living. And one of the things astronomy teaches you is you, us, the planet, the entire galaxy we freewheel on, doesn't account for anything much in the scale of the universe. Nothing we do means anything but to us, on this lonely isolated rock. Which is lucky really, because if we could, I'm sure the human race would quickly screw up somewhere else at an exponetial rate!

But, I suppose that is the price evolution demands, a survival of the fitest, and luckiest. I count myself lucky every day if I avoid exposure to yet another sorrowful event, large and small. But I also greatly appreciate that I am alive, and I have witnessed creation. I've also realised that on my own I could never do enough about what I would like to do. But, you can only do so much, and sometimes it is easier to walk away or drive on by, because you haven't got anything left to give, and you can no long face the sadness. Or as a friend of mine who is a fireman said. If you can't save yourself, you won't save anyone else in the future.

[fringe_dweller]

erm i wonder who can tell me what the number one killer of our iconic species koala's are in this country? if you responded fido you are correct

to compare the cat's eco footprint to the damage loss of habitat causes to little birdies ect. in history by farming and suburban development, specially draining swamps and lagoons, is just plain farcical - oh but that comes under 'dominion over all things' if your a bible reader i believe

btw i have never stepped in cat ****e while walking in the park

[xelasnave]

The reality is that species migrate and certainly we can feel guilty as it was us ( the recent wave of humans) who are responsible for bringing the cat, the dog, the cane toad, the horse , the camel, the goat, the fox, the rabbit those birds..indian minor? etc to these shores but they are now part of the mix... think of the plants also that invade once they are cast out...

What can we do I ask and I doubt if there is anything that can solve this problem really... they have throw a lot of cash at getting rid of the rabbit but they are still there...

I forgot to mention the water buffalo up North..

There is one thing which could work... a bounty as when ever humans see a profit they are prepared to drive that species to extinction...

I bet if you could get $20 for a cane toad they would last about 5 years...
I think we should not be so hard on the ferals however when we can see tracts of land cleared cleared by greedy humans to be replaced with mono cultures that will not support the native species that once lived there... up home as I said there is no problem with ferals as there is plenty of turf and it is tuff to get by irrespective of being a local or an import there is enough room for all it seems but where it is desert like well one cat or one dog or one rabbit, horse or whatever will have an enormous impact..

I dont know but one thing is for sure it is humans that have created the problems with ferals and they wont do zip to really fix it...

I wonder what the planet will be like in say another 500 years at the current rate of land clearing, species extinctions and lack of care on our part... I dont think there are any bears left in the UK and they were once a native there..and wolves they are gone alsoI think... it was not the Lions the Rome let go when they left that took them out... those animals were hunted by humans.

Sadly on this planet extinction is the rule not the exception... that is the fact we who are confined to a small part of history can not comprehend... and when you look back thru history you find the percentage of extinction is (from hazy recollection) some 95% or greater.. so that leaves me to think everything is the way it is ..a sad reality that can be laid at our feet in this age..however when humans were not the main players extinctions still happened... it is sad to think we lose so many aniamls each year the curent extinction rate is unbelievable I can not recall it but maybe someone can tell us how many species disappear for good each year...

I think I will spend the rest of the day wringing my hands.

alex

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

[quote=Night Owl;289100]
Maybe we should make it compulsory for cat owners to also own a Cane Toad?

Why won't cat lovers stick up for Cane Toads and the environmental damage they do? I know why, because cane Toads aren't 'cute and cudly', and nobody wants one sitting on their lap, let alone to pat it!

I dunno, this cane toad doesn't look too bad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3ENUqV5-bw

[omnivorr]

Originally Posted by Night Owl

I see you speak fluent urban environmentalist.

yes I see you're location is Ararat. 'nuff said.

Plenty of dark skies out your way?

(PS Hi Alex, thanks for your kind words. I'd been too long without sleep at the time.. I was going to remove my post, but now I'll leave it

[Dujon]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Most of the pets I've had have been rescued.
There was Matilda (Tilly), a Foxie cross wire haired terrier . . .

Likewise, 'Nettie. I purchase a little ginger kitten umpteen years ago for 50c at a local pet store. Within a year or three two other ginger cats 'adopted' our family. They were made welcome. One of them was a 'feral' - but only because he'd been dumped - and turned up on our back balcony one evening literally starving; his back legs didn't work. How on Earth he managed the 12 steps I don't know. He stayed with us for a few years but then simply disappeared. Despite myself, my wife and my children scouring the neighborhood we didn't find the poor sod. The other adopted was an absolutely gorgeous British Shorthair (I think) - he was a really, really handsome cat.

The original female passed away at about 17 years of age and the adopted BSH at about the same age just a few months later. That left a huge hole in our family. My daughter (bless her little cotton socks) purchased a couple of young felines - both ginger - from a council pound close to where she works and presented them to us. The one which recently succumbed to cancer was one of those.

Her name? Tilly.

*edit*

Yes, all of them were de-sexed - either before or after joining us.

[skairey]

Thanks jjjnettie, I loved it.

As for the men battling it out for top dog (or cat as the case my be), thanks for turning jjj's lovely ditty into a bun fight of killing and destruction.
The biggest killers of wild life is MAN, and you are just proving the point with your neanderthal chest beating.


Thanks for the light hearted and lovely post jjjnettie

[JimmyH155]

The only disagreements I have had between myself and the wife in 14 years is the **@# cat. First of all she used to belt out kittens like crazy, and it was me who had to drown them (AWFUL job) Then I have taken her down to the RSPCA twice to be put down, and twice, the wife found out and snuck off and rescued her (at great expense) . Then once I grabbed her and thought "Aha got you, now you'ses going into the pool" What happens?? She struggled so much that I let go and had to have my lacerations attended to.
Now? at 15 years old she just sits on top of the 2 metre high fence and glares at me when I come in from work as if to say "You just touch me and you're going to be sorry"
The 14 year old deaf and smelly dog, on the other hand always wags her tail at me.

[Ric]

Well, if you tried to drown me I too would shred you and not speak to you either.

Long live the cats

cheers