by Christine Cameron

Created on: February 08, 2008

You walk in the door after a business trip and your dog bowls you over and covers you with "kisses". Your cat on the other hand is in the living room rubbing on the couch, to make it quite clear that you are easily replaceable by a mere stick of furniture. Why the difference in affection when both pets ultimately crave our attention?

Small cats are born to be independent in the wild for survival, they migrate alone so each species has a better chance to spread. Being migratory animals, smaller breeds of wild cats hunt alone at night when they are less apt to become the prey.

We, as humans, tend to reinforce this behavior and accept it as 'cats being cats'. Therefore, we do not tend to force training or social situations on our feline friends. When we get a new kitten, we tend to spend quiet time and speak and play softly with it. Individual cats can be trained to do tricks just as easily as dogs, most people never try.

Conversely, dogs are born to a pack mentality; living, hunting, and surviving as a group. Being alone is not good in the dog world. Humans reinforce this behavior as well. When we get a new puppy, we call friends to come play and rough house. We tend to "introduce" the puppy to as many people as possible, so it becomes friendly with everyone.

Dogs are more loyal to humans in general because we have bred out most of their pure hunting abilities. Time and time again we have seen dogs starve to death after a catastrophe when rescue workers could not evacuate them. Many of the dogs will stay at their homes long after humans have left, not knowing anywhere else to "hunt" for food.

We have yet to devolve the cat to this level, in fact we seem to cherish the very nature of the hunt in even the most docile of house cats. Many cats have to earn their place in the family by keeping the home or farm free of rodents. For this reason, cats will not have the dependency on humans that dogs have. You must EARN at cats loyalty. Domestic house cats have the ability to be as loyal as any dog, but for them it is an option not a necessity.

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