So the big question…Are you a dog or a cat person or both?
I would always have said I was a dog person but some years back, we acquired Max The Cat. He was already called Max so we had to add “The Cat” to distinguish him from Max The Baby. Max was a lovely cat. Incredibly affectionate and always up for a cuddle. Unless you happened to be a rabbit. We always knew when Spring was really underway as every morning Max would present me with a baby rabbit. The rabbits would get larger and larger as the months went past until he would be tackling fully grown rabbits and returning home with the battle scars to prove it. Despite having two dogs in the house, Max was definitely the boss and would make the two dogs wait until he had eaten all he wanted from his “rabbit tartare”, before he would allow them to approach and finish up the remains.
We took Max to France with us, but very sadly, one day he went out and never returned.
By this time, Max had me so smitten with cats, that we’d got two kittens for the girls, Toby and Emily. We still have Emily who is now a cantankerous middle aged lady. This was to be the start of a long line of cats… Toby unfortunately got squished by the next door neighbours teenage daughter. I think it was only the second time she had ever been behind the wheel of a car and it traumatised her for months. Me too. There’s nothing like eating supper with three small children on a dark winters evening when a distraught 18 year old turns up in floods of tears, clutching a dead kitten. It was hard to know whose tears to mop up first!
Emily then had kittens and we kept one, Felix, who eventually succumbed to a virus. Then came Murdoch, a very pretty grey, who we are pretty sure got stolen. At this point my mantra had become “No more Cats.” Needless to say, when James turned up one day carrying a sports holdall which contained a half starved Barrabas, my mantra went out of the window. We now have three cats and two dogs. I couldn’t imagine being without any of them. Neels - the decrepit spaniel was hit by a car on Sunday night and the entire household was over the moon when we realised that he was ok. I didn’t want another dog when we were asked to take on Neels and I certainly wouldn’t have chosen one that is half blind, deaf, limps, has a heart condition and farts excessively. But in the last two years we have all grown to adore him, even Emily the miserable cat will get in his box to cuddle him.
And when we lost Lemon (cat) a couple of weeks ago, it was Mischa (dog) who found her.
Writing this long ramble has made me conclude that these days, I’m both a cat and dog person. How about you?
OH yes I agree.When I "adopted "my cats I had two very senior dogs (they were 15 and 16 at the time)Jacot ,a basset fauve de bretagne , was deaf and blind and very ill and one of the little kittens would often go and sit with him. He died several weeks later and it was the cat who alerted me.Three months later my chocolate lab died.I was very sad about losing them both.We then adopted ,fidjy, a golden retriever.When she arrived she was spat at for two days by the cats and then completly ignored for two months!!!But now I often see one or other of the cats cuddling up to her
I don’t think you can beat the life lesson of dags and cats getting on with each other and accepting each other for what they are.
(so long as the dog knows his place, of course!)
I had always considered myself to be a dog person until one day I came across some kittens who had been abandoned in the woods nearby.I picked them up and took them home intending to find good homes for them.Well they did find a good home…Mine!!And ever since I am both a cat and a dog person too
Photo please John! xx
Definitely dog and from a very early age, infact I have photos of myself in a pram with a dog lying beneath the pram, apparently that dog never left my side though I was much to young to remember him, next was a Corgi cross Scottie when I was 5 still remember choosing him and bringing him home in mums shopping back he died aged 11 when I was 16 after that dad and myself shared a Corgi until I left home, dad always had a Corgi until he felt he was to old to look after a dog, my gran also had an Old English Sheepdog that dog was to leave a lasting impression on me though little did I realise it at the time, living away from home I was unable to have a dog but after getting married thoughts once again turned to having a dog, remembering an article I had read a few years earlier while sitting in a crew room in some far distant place about the Old English Sheepdog rescue thoughts began to stir cutting to the chase I went through the third degree at the rescue centre , passed and was awarded my first OES that started a 30+ year involvement with the rescue when my first OES died I always maintained it took me three months to get over the loss, when my first wife left the kids and myself it took three weeks to get over it, I never set out to have more than one dog but always that call , John we have a dog can you help so two has been the norm until I met my second wife who had a dog and cat the cat was nasty after attacking various friends she was re homed we now have 4 OES and have brought them to France , my wife works voluntary in the local dog rescue so yes I would say definitely dog people
I come from a dog-loving family, we always had dogs and it was the first and only time I ever saw my dad cry when we had to take Sandy, a lovely lab cross, on the one way trip to the vets when he was 19 and his health had totally failed.
When I met my husband he had just taken on 2 kittens, Big G(big ginger tom) and Bassett(black and white), that was it, me smitten - to the cats and the man!
That was 25 years ago and here I am, running a cat Rescue Charity and training to be a cat behaviourist. I would say that I am a cat person but I love all animals and have evidence every day of my life that those who are compassionate towards animals have the same sentiments towards humans. The opposite is unfortunately true too!
I still love dogs, we have one, a rescue Labrador cross called Oggie, she is essentially my dog as although he’d never harm any other creature, my husband is just not interested in owning a dog. I have caught him playing and fussing her at times, even if he denies it!
Thankfully he still likes cats and he is just as committed to the charity as I am.