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Which is better equipped to care for the needs of a human being; a dog or a cat? Well that depends really on whether you are a demanding, self-focused and attention seeking dog, or a sensible, responsible and independent cat.

The problem with human beings is that they require a great deal of education before they can be considered worthy companions of the inhabitants of the animal kingdom. Unfortunately and rather amusingly, this educating of human beings is a specialist subject and an area in which creatures of the canine variety are rather deficient. After all, a creature that even as an adult, still needs to be taken to the toilet is never going to aspire to proper care of its servants! And whilst we're on the subject of personal hygiene, phew, it is well known that this is something that dogs are not terribly attentive to. Whiffy dogs tend to repel humans, (and cats!) which means that unless the human can be conditioned to take pleasure in bathing their masters, they really find serving dogs rather repulsive.

Human training then, is best undertaken by felines simply because felines have the ability to cope without them... this obviously puts the cat in charge in a way that few dogs could ever really aspire to.

The secret of good human training, is learning how to manipulate the human with a combination of vocabulary and to a great extent, body language. All cats have an instinctive ability to do this, and observation of both cats and dogs with their humans will quickly tell the onlooker which is the better at the task.

Obviously, I have no wish to be judgmental on these matters and dogs must be commended on their ability to make loud noises and wag their tails, however it has to be said that these skills are somewhat limited in their usefulness. Cats, on the other hand are far more expressive in their communication skills and are able to cajole their humans into opening doors, preparing food and much much more. All that the humans need in order to do these things willingly is an endearing expression from the cat, a little soothing cuddle and a bit of purring. In fact if a cat senses (as dogs cannot) that their human is unhappy for any reason, the human can easily be cheered up by allowing it to stroke the cat and with the addition of a bit of purring and head rubbing, the human will soon be smiling again. This may be a little bit irritating at times but still, the cat needs to be willing to put up with all this because as the saying goes 'a happy human is an attentive human' and all cats want their humans to be there, ready to serve as required.

And so as all cats know, to get maximum usefulness from the human, good communication and a little bit of patience will reward their owners with a contented and useful servant as opposed to the exhausted and irritable servant that most dogs seem to acquire. Finally, as all of us cats also know, there is nothing more satisfying than watching your human servant relaxing contentedly on our sofas, knowing that he or she is properly cared for by the attention and devotion that has been lavished upon them by their feline mistress or master.

Learn more about this author, Edward Flynn.
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