Dog or Cat?

 Or neither?   Or both?

There is an article in today's Times which suggests - according to the Headline - that 'Dingoes were once man's best friend'. Research carried out in Australia at a place called Curracurrang (anarchaeological site near to Sydney)found that dingo bones were buried alongside humans at least 2300 years ago.  The fact that they were buried so close together suggest they  had 'almost human' status.,

Europeans arriving in Australia in the 19th and 20th centuries saw many dingo puppies living in Aboriginal settlements.   They had been taken from wild dens and raised by humans.   When they were about a year old they returned to the wild  as the mating urge took hold and were not in contact with humans again.   (dingoes are thought to have been taken to Australia by Asian seafarers about 4000 years before any Europeans arrived.)

Now they are seen as pests and shot or poisoned because sheep seem to reign supreme over there and sheep are easy meat for dingoes.  But they are still 'recognised' as dogs.

Some folk love dogs, some love cats, some love both and some love neither.   Judging from the number of dogs around here (almost a status symbol amongst the retired on this estate) it would seem the dog reigns supreme.

Cats?   Well one of my carers. W, has three Bengal cats and an ordinary 'moggie' and loves them  dearly, as well as her three Chihuahuas and German Shepherd. (I think from this we can assume she loves cats and dogs equally).

My main carer, J, claims she doesn't like either but I notice she regularly has her daughter's dog to stay if they are going away and she tells me this morning that the cat who lives in the flat above hers considers itself to have two homes.   Its 'official'  home where there is central heating and a winter home with J who has a log burner.   Yesterday J opened a window a little way when the sun came out and then towards tea time lit the log burner.   She watched as the upstairs cat squeezed through the window, strolled across the room and curled up in  front of the log burner.   At bed time the cat had disappeared and she assumed her partner had let it out at some point.   When she got up this morning the cat was sitting on the window cill and pointedly staring at J to be let out the same way it came in.

Most folk feel that dogs are more friendly than cats.  The old saying goes:

Dogs look up to you.

Cats look down on you

But pigs is equal.

I love both (all three in fact) but I certainly get the feeling, as most of us do, that a dog is a faithful pal, who is a real companion and can easily be trained, whereas cats (apart from toilet habits - and let's face it, they are very clean animals, much cleaner than dogs (well have you ever seen a dog clean itself?) -  cats do as they please, stay where they like( ie where the food is more to their liking, where the bed is warmer, where there is a log burner!).

My carer's friend had (note 'had' not 'has') a cat for a few years and then it vanished.   After searching and putting up notices she gave it up for lost or run over on the main road - that is until about a year later when walking along a footpath on the estate it suddenly walked out of the hedge bottom and came up to her calling loudly.  She picked it up, she was ecstatic as she carried it home until she turned up the drive when it bounded out of her arms and hared back up the way they had come, shot back under the hedge and went back into its 'new' home.

Interesting - if whether or not we insure them against illness is a guide to which we love most - in Denmark 72% of dogs have vet insurance and 24% of cats.   Here the figures are 58% of dogs and 37% cats.

So make you choice.   Mine?   I can't have another dog because I can no longer walk it and I don't have a cat because the road is too busy and I couldn't bear to see it run over (seeing 'my' hedgehog flattened on the road a couple of weeks ago was more than bad enough).   Cat, dog or nothing?  (unless you opt for  my friend's Chamelon - Charles - or my carer's son's Lizard - the late Gerald now just a little cross in the front garden.)