Depends on how they are cooked.

Cats are OK, I guess, because you can leave them on their own for a couple of days (so I'm told), and they'll be OK.

But when you come home after a long day dealing with all the workday crap, and you're in a rotten mood, a cat isn't going to come to the door and greet you with that "You're the greatest guy in the world!" thing that a dog does. Plus, a dog isn't going to sink his claws into you when you give him a bath.

So, all things considered, I'll pick dogs every time. I guess that's why I have three dogs and no cats.

Cats.

Unless you need a good cow dog.

Cats are great mousetraps, they don't need walking and they tend to have a better sense of personal space than dogs.

Kahala questioned why the "Godfather" or "Scarface" movies shirts they sell aren't stirring up the community; they, too, could be seen as promoting organized gangs and violence.

... Because those are movies, not actual people?

Because they're not designed to promote the harming or killing of those who dare mention crimes or turn in criminals?

What a maroon. Just because you *can* do something doesn't mean you should.

I was mainly raised on cats, so I'm a bit biased. I've been around dogs in the past, and have both good and bad experiences with them. Most of the bad experiences have been with friends' dogs or a relative's dog. I think only once or twice have I had a bad experience with a dog we owned. I've also had bad experiences with cats as well. Again, mainly friends' cats or relatives' cats.

If I had a dog like Jasper, I'd be all for dogs. He looks almost like a dog my parents and I had when I was a teen. He was a dog we got from my great-granddad. He was an old dog, and lived a good five or six years after we got him. He stayed outside most of the time when we first got him, but as it became more difficult for him to get around, we decided to make him a house dog, and only took him out for a walk two or three times a day. His name was Pete, and he was a German Shepherd mix. He was a good dog.

I love both cats and dogs.

However, I probably will never actually own a dog. I realize that I'd not make a very good owner, so I won't allow myself to have one. I'm not home at regular times to take him out for a walk, and I'm not keen on going for a walk when it's super hot or super cold outside. Also, the types of dogs I really love (herding and working types) are the types of dogs that require a lot of work and activity - neither of which I have to give right now.

So, I'll have to settle for only having cats... Uh, I mean "being owned by cats." (I'll just "borrow" my freinds' and family's dogs when I need some canine attention.)

I prefer badgers - medium rare.

I've had both cats and dogs and like them both, but I think I lean more towards dogs. After my husband was hurt in a car accident, our dog stayed right by him. I worried a lot less when I was at work knowing our pooch was there (I don't know why, it's not like he could dial 911 or give CPR, but...). Most cats would just wait 'til you died and then eat the good parts.

Cats. I love dogs, but know that I would get really exasperated (sp?) with one. So I occasionally visit a friend or family member with one.

Cats are a piece of cake in comparison. The downside of litterboxes is more than compensated by the fact that I don't have to scour the lawn for dog bombs, nor do I have to walk home with a bag full of aforementioned bombs.

I also admire the cat's ability to flip people off despite not having a middle finger.

We have a dog. A labradoodle, a cursed breed if ever there was one. She is neurotic and not-so-bright all in one furry package! And don't let 'em tell you labradoodles don't shed--I find clumps of her hair all over the freakin' place.

I am not a dog (or a cat) person, but I gave in after years of resistance to the pleas my wife & kids. I admit, after three years, I have grown attached to her. Kind of.

If she's feeling especially giving, maybe she'll puke and pee on the carpet. I think next week she's going to let me pet her for 5 minutes. I'll know my time is up when she scratches and bites me.

I love cats--a good thing, since my stepmother and father breed Cornish Rexes at their home, the home I'll be staying at in Louisville 'til I've my own--they seem maybe the most human out of the two species, if that makes any sense.

Dogs are fun, too, but the bigger they are, the more likely I have to watch my back; I was scared of dogs when I was little, and that hasn't really left me.

Hah! Just Kidding!

I love the dogs too, especially terriers. Probably because they are cats in dogs suits.

sorry, hope I didn't spoil your poll, but I was watching the weather come in, outside at a no-frills bus stop last night when folks usually are having supper. even though the rolling thunder just north of downtown Mpls sounded like the proverbial train above, drowning out the jets on their temporary path, it ain't official until the sirens kick on and you try to locate the three that are blaring at you.

in the rain.

outside the wind zone.

where the tornadoes form.

where there is no bus shelter.

made me really happy to see the 25F come along, so I could get home to my cat AND my dog, and the wife, and supper, and see if the breakup burps on the satellite form music.

I'm more a cat person, but my wife wanted a dog . . . we now have two dogs (a Samoyed and an Australian Shepherd) -- I love 'em both. Last fall a cat moved in with us: she'd been hanging around on our front porch, we put out some food, you know the rest -- she moved in bag & baggage. Dogs are great for companionship -- they want you and are happy to get your attention; cats are nicely independent. Even when nobody else loves you your dog does; when you get the cat's affection you feel you've achieved something. You need both.

Growing up, we had a Westie, then a Cocker Spaniel. After my sister and I left the house, my mom filled the vacancies with a Maltese and a Yorkie (I guess she missed all our yapping?).

My husband and I brought a Sheltie/Eskimo mix home from the pound when we bought our first house. She passed away just this last May after 15 years of devotion. (oh, I miss her!)

So now I'm on the hunt for a new canine member of the family; husband, Son #1 and myself are all allergic (which makes the whole "Sheltie" thing probably a bad choice, in retrospect). I was very interested in Sonnymoon42's comment that labradoodles shed in giant clumps (at least we'd be used to that...)

Any comments on Wheaten terriers? Anyone? I'm also thinking about another Westie. Son #2 wants a Lab, but given that they're as big has he is (and not "hypoallergenic", although I realize that's a misnomer), I think we'll have to pass.

Considered a Maltese, too; husband says they're too small and yappy. I countered with a promise to name it "Muskie Bait."

Didn't fly.

I love dogs, but I don't have the time, patience or room to properly take care of a dog so I simply won't own one. I enjoy others when I get a chance to, though.

I am without a cat now for the first time in 15 years! Had 5 (don't recommend this to anyone and I won't do it again-LOL!), but they slowly died off or ran away. The last one is alive and well but decided he likes living with the neighbors behind us, so we leave him be. The lady has 5 cats herself and he likes that she is there all day. Strangest cat - has alot of dog-like qualities, such as needing more attention than your average cat and coming when called by name (really!). He comes around every few days just for attention and it works out great! Don't have to pay any medical bills (although we originally fixed and declawed him) or feed him (although he does eat some of the cat food we have left over from the last cat we lost in June). I wondering about this arrangement now......LOL!!

I wonder sometimes if he lives with more than just one household and several houses in the neighborhood thinks he's theirs? That would be SO like him......big (paws the size of my palms!), lovable tom that he is.....

My kids and I badly want another one, but my husband and I decided we should focus on our financial problems before committing to another animal and the money involved in properly caring for one.

Some day soon, though, I will have another one to love and be shunned by....LOL!!

Politics are religion for some. And it doesn't stop for weather. As in ancient days, bad weather is often attributed to the depravity of man and the outrages of one's enemy. With news of climate change, anything but anything unfortunate or atypical in the skies can easily become the fault of the bogeymen in authority. NPR not long ago had a "science" segment laying blame for hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Bush Administration. "Sound crazy? Not so fast!" they teased, before giving listeners all the rhetorical tricks they needed to turn any natural disaster into evidence of Republican mendacity.

Since then, I have on multiple occasions witnessed people look to the roiling skies only to lament "corporate greed" and the failure of Kyoto. To avoid a political argument, it almost seems necessary to insist that the weather actually isn't so bad. Until it really starts to hail and blow, at which point these people look back at you with knowing smirks and nodding heads--"What'd I tell you? Corporate greed."

I love cats and dogs, but I'm mostly a dog person. Particularly Shih Tzu. I have 2. If you're a Shih Tzu person, I don't have to explain why I love them. I've never seen one I didn't like.

I love it when people ask me what type of dogs I have. I had one lady yell down from a 3rd floor apartment balcony to ask me. And, it always tickles me the types of people that boo-boo over them when we take them on trips. From the elderly to rough-looking bikers.

... I am horribly allergic to them. I remember in college I was dating a girl who had several cats. The second I walked into her house my eyes started to swell shut and my nose began to runnin' (on down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico). So basically, cats killed that relationship. Lousy cats.

Dogs are much better. Dogs I can handle. Then again, I was viciously attacked by a dog when I was four, and three decades later I still have a scar of my face. And our dog requires expensive shots and special medicine twice a day. Lousy dogs.

Maybe I should get a bird?

AAAAGGGHHH! No you didn't say that! ha ha

http://www.gone2thedogs.com/

Mine is a kerry Blue Terrier.

we had one growing up.. moody possessive cute but crazy..

this quiz hit the nail on the head

I have had a kerry blue
a wheaten for 11 years
now a tibetan terrier (not a true terrier, more like a cat that is moody and snooty)

Love dogs but, if you do not have the time they deserve, you should not have one. First going back to school and now long commute bites into my time so I have not had a dog for several years. I do miss the way our last dog helped keep the deer and raccoons away from the home & garden.

Cats are low maintenance and comforting.

No surprise, I love ferrets. Some high maintenance, however, like cats they sleep a lot so the time investment needed is minimal. Not as affectionate as dogs but more playful than cats.

I have:

Two 80 pound mutts - they are 8 years old, but one acts like she's 10 weeks and the other acts like he's a cool dude ("You want me to do WHAT?"). They are brother and sister and have NEVER been apart for a single minute.

This week, my husband decided they could sleep in our room, as they are not chewers and are housebroken. This morning I asked my husband why he was licking my elbow.

It wasn't him.

Seven cats - yes, I said seven. This is what happens when your son works for Animal Control and brings home tiny kittens to "foster" so they can get a good home.

It took five "foster" babies for me to realize that once I get attached to a cat, it stays. Their ages are 9 (two brothers), 8, 7, 6, 5 and 4 and 3.

And my cats live well into their late teens, so there is a definite possibility that I will be running a geriatric cat home in about eight years.

And my son? Oh he's married and in law school now. The cats are still with me.

Much more independent and self-sufficient. You put them outside... and they aren't really going to go running off after anything.

They also tend not to tear up the woodwork if you are gone for more than 6 hours... like a dog we had as a child did.

"We were talking about cats and dogs the other day and decided that both have consciences but the dog, being an honest, humble person, always has a bad one, but the cat is a Pharisee and always has a good one. When he sits and stares you out of countenance he is thanking God that he is not as these dogs or these humans or even as these other cats!"
- C.S. Lewis in "Letters to an American Lady"

2 horses
4 cats
8 dogs (5 geriatric, 1 foster)

No, I'm not a collector or a nut. I live in the middle of nowhere, and Dumping Dogs in the Country is the Texas state pastime. I adopt most of them out.

I don't have anything against cats, I'm just violently allergic to them. (Cat scratch fever is a real thing, not just a rockin' tune by the Nuge, and I nearly died from it when I was three). So, I've never really been able to bond with cats.

Dogs, on the other hand...well, I've only met one that I didn't like, and that was because it didn't like me first. My husband and I have three Cocker Spaniels: two brothers, age five, and a female, age six. They are wonderful companions, if a bit on the clingy side. I have three little shadows wherever I go in the house, and lots of companionship on the sofa when I watch tv at night. They do require a lot of time and attention, but I love the little buggers. I just wish Abby didn't feel it necessary to kill every bird that ventures into the backyard, because I get tired of disposing of little carcasses.

Like dogs, but have cats. I have contributed to traffic. There!

If you want the best of dogs and cats, get a Siamese cat. At least, get one like the one we had. Every time we came home he would greet us like we were the best people in the world.

Played a good game of 'tag', too.

A few cats have lived in my caves over the years. Or as far as they were concerned, they let me live in their cave.
Tiger would eat anything, and could turn doorknobs. Of course he couldn't pull a door towards him, but if he was on the right side of a door, he could open it himself and push through.
Nittany fetched. I didn't teach him. He brought a cat toy to me once, dropped it at my feet, and looked up at me. I threw it, and he brought it back and dropped it again. He'd fetch like that six or seven times in a row. When he decided he'd played fetch enough, he'd stop half-way back to me, flop down, and drop the toy between his paws, and glare at me. Just try and get it.
Felix greeted me at the door whenever I came home. He'd stand up with his paws on me, so that I would pick him up; at which point he'd crawl up on my shoulders and ride around there for the next ten or fifteen minutes.
Cats can be pretty good company. Just don't expect too much.

A DogCow is a good pet choice.

They say, "Moof!"

bright beams and fog lights both on
steering by the two red lights i see in flashes
when the topspeed winshieldwipers pass by
two coatless boys walk over the bridge

p s there was no twister on penn and four ninety four

Actually, I don't think the subject matter would ever reach that level of contention. Anyway, I don't currently have any pets fight now (I'm in an apartment, and although I could theoretically get a pet here, I don't think I'm around enough to properly take care of one) I'll just go to my parents' house and visit their two beagles, Imola and Minardi (yeah, there's some Formula 1 fans in the family. The photo is also old; they're both about two years old now.) That way, I get to hang out with the dogs, then return to my clean, non dog-chewed apartment when I'm done. My sister and her husband also have a pair of beagles (one is about 4 years old now, the other was Imola's littermate.) Especially when you get all 4 of them together, they can really get to be a handful to take care of, but beagles are about as affectionate as they come.

On the other hand, cats have some merits too. Among other things, you can take pictures of them, and post them on the Internet with misspelled captions...

... it wouldn't surprise me if at some point someone gets called Hitler.

I have two cats that I use as mousers, sorry "Rodent Control Engineers." As I live in the Rocky Mountain foothills, there is plenty of opportunity for them to perfect their mousing skills.

About eighteen months ago I rescued both cats from an animal shelter one day before barbecue time. They were severely abused in their previous incarnation but with help and patience they once again find life worth living.

Mama-san is a matronly, prissy female black shorthair about eight years old; pear-shaped with pendulous boob-bags. She is queen of the house and everyone must bow to her wishes. She is a true lap cat with a loud purr that sounds exactly like an old Model "T" automobile as it idles. Many an enjoyable evening has been spent watching an old movie while Mama-san rattles away in my lap.

Mr. Binx is a three year old Russian Blue with a bobbed tail. He won't elaborate if his tail is naturally bobbed, was damaged in an accident or deliberately cut off by a cruel former owner. He is foreman and supervisor of the house. Nothing can be accomplished without his supervision and approval. He is very talkative and will always comment on the best way to accomplish a task. He will always make certain that every task is performed correctly and completely. An example: he will always make sure the bath water temperature is correct before you are allowed to climb in the tub.

Mr. Binx is the happiest, friendliest cat I have ever had. He always greets me with a cheerful "hello" every morning.

We have worked out an amicable agreement. I am in charge of rations and weather, they are in charge of everything else.

Grew up in a house of dogs, learned to watch where I stepped and regularly throw out ruined carpets. Sure I suppose they can be trained but my family never had the time. So I despised dogs.

Married a cat lover, her cats quickly ruined my leather "Capitan Kirk" chair and innumerable other items of furniture. "Oh look, how precious, she's sharpening her claws on the new kitchen table legs" learned to hate cats quickly.

Love either in any ceramic though.

Hey Findlay, when my husband was growing up they had a cat with a black moustache, female, that they called "Hitlerina"!

True story!

There used to be a site that had pictures of Hitler cats but, it seem to be gone. If you search google images you get quite a few, some with comical enhancements:

Google nazi cats

But that's just me! No particular reason although one did give me ringworm when I was young. Even after that, I still tolerated them until my daughter got one who was STUPID! I even named him Stupid then felt guilty about it & wanted to name him something else. Then he did something else stupid and I couldn't change his name!

Cats are great. We've had 3 and unfortunately didn't know enough about care for the first one, ended up giving her away to a family that allowed her to roam outside. She had an exciting but short life. Our second was a fetching cat (brought back his toys), graceful and always ready to curl up in a lap. Our third greets us at the door with an amazing vocabulary and head bumps encouraging us to stroke him.

For either dogs or cats the owners (or as the cats like to think of them "staff") need to have some smarts.

Speaking of which -- what's the point of having sirens blaring and hail or tornado warnings if instead of seeking shelter people stand out by bus stops and board the bus, or people line up in flooded parking lots for cheap food. A new fast-food restaurant near us had $1 meals for their grand opening last night -- heard there were people outside in the worst of the storm.

Dog thinks re: owner:
He houses me, feeds me, cleans up after me, pets me.
He must be God.

Cat thinks re: "owner":
He houses me, feeds me, cleans up after me, pets me.
I must be God.

What else can you tell me about your Labradoodle experience? How often do you have her groomed? Do you know anything abouth Wheaten Terriers? Thanks!