My son’s (relatively) new kitten is sprawled out on the kitchen counter next to me while I click clack away at today’s blog. His head lols over the side of the granite counter restfully. Occasionally he swipes a paw downward at our last puppy in the litter who, whining, looks up towards him expectantly. Even at this age the puppy knows he’ll never be on a table. He knows there are so many places and elevations in this house that are completely off limits to him and any other dog that lives here. But the cat…
I cannot be sure if it is through choice or feline force of will that so many of us bipedals refuse to train our cats. We (or at least I) find them extremely cute if not occasionally standoffish, but we (I) are willing to tolerate this and so much more from felines than we are from dogs. Canines can’t get away with much. I’ll reserve judgement and analysis on the purse breeds for now, but the average dog isn’t given the same freedoms as the average cat. Maybe its a lack of trust in bowel movements or a ‘size matters’ thing or anything to do with fear. Maybe it is the purring. That hypnotic not-roar tends to shut me down faster than a Mesa, AZ bar approaching 10PM.
And the mewling…
Perhaps the cuteness is key. Cats are far cuter than dogs and that has an impact on how we interact with things. Have you ever wanted to cuddle a cute baby? How about an ugly one? It seems to me that this subject requires further study. John Scalzi once suggested in his writing that Cats may one day replace us–so long as we genetically modify them to have opposable thumbs. He also, more jokingly, talked about Yogurt taking over and their reign was good.
Cats are not quite ready to take over but they are seated in the cuteness epicenter of human culture. Somewhere just beyond that spotlight, a dog is pissed off.