Why cats are better than dogs! (or are they)?!

We hope that by covering this topic for the PurrForm newsletter, and presuming that you are all cat lovers, you will agree that we all know that cats outshine dogs in so many ways!

For those of you that have both cats & dogs, we will you leave you to decide yourselves which ones come out on top!! 

We thought that for the start of the new year, we could have a light hearted view of the cats V dogs debate, with some fun ‘facts’ about cats.

This article was inspired by something that was on Reddit a while ago, in reference to: 

“I’m trying hard to live by Cat Principles”.

1. I am glorious above all things
2. Eat when hungry, sleep when sleepy, play when bored
3. Affection is given and received on my terms and only mine
4. Show displeasure clearly
5. “NO”!
6. Demand the things you want. If they aren’t given, demand then again, but louder this time
7. If you are touched when you don’t want to be, say so. If they continue to touch you, make them bleed!”

The above prompted so many funny responses, some of which included:

• And that's why if a man hates your cat, it's time to wonder why. 
• My husband is a cat person, he respects boundaries and consent and comfort
• I remember seeing something that said people who don't like cats (because cats bite when being petted) actually don't like consent.
• Cats definitely know how to set and enforce boundaries.
• You give a dog food and shelter and love, and it will believe you're a god; you give a cat those things and it will believe it is a god."
• This is why I live my life in such a manner that I may return as one of these higher life forms!
• I love point 5 (No!). From a cat point of view, it can have so many meanings, too. "No touch there." "No get off counter." "No eat this."
• I think that I am going to make these my new house rules!
• As a people pleaser, I definitely should live more like a cat, it can actually be really good advice”

While, for some people, dogs are wonderful creatures that make great pets, they can’t compare to cats. Just to name a few things, cats don’t smell (most of the time), they don’t take up much room (unless they are a Maine Coon) and they’re incredibly low maintenance (unless they are a Siamese)!

So, while the debate about who is better – cats or dogs – seems to have been raging forever, ‘science’ confirms that cats are the superior species!

Personal preferences aside, scientific evidence has arisen proving that cats do in fact have the upper-paw. Both domestic cats and the ‘big’ cats – those that roar – including tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards, also all possess fully retractable claws like domestic cats.

This adaptation ensures their claws are protected by a sheath of skin when they are not being used to catch prey, climb, scratch or provide traction. The retractable claws of most cats have worked to their advantage and made their hunts far more successful. These cats can choose when to use their nails as a deadly weapon, allowing them to keep their claws nice and sharp, making it far easier to catch prey in the wild. 

On the other hand, dogs have their nails constantly exposed and this means that their claws are gradually filed down to nothing. 

We could then ask: “Why have big cats evolved but not big dogs?”

While considering sheathed and unsheathed claws and big cats, we can debate the following;

It’s about how the big cats hunt ie. mostly alone, relying on a short burst of speed and swiping with their claws to bring down prey. Conversely, wild dogs are different, as they use teamwork, chasing prey over long distances and leading to the prey collapsing from exhaustion. 

In this type of endurance contest, a large body is a disadvantage, as more energy is required to move and it does not improve the chances of a kill.

Cats & dogs are of course, different animals, both of which have evolved within the ‘Carnivora Order’ to fit different niches. Their last common ancestor lived some 40 million years ago and a divergence produced the ‘feliforms’ – cats, hyenas and mongooses – and ‘caniforms’ – dogs, bears, raccoons and walruses. 

So, you could argue that big dogs do exist, and the equivalent of the tiger in the dog world, is a grizzly bear!”

On a different note, cats are also very intelligent creatures and science has shown that while their brain may make up a smaller proportion of their body and contain fewer neurons compared to a dog, cats have a higher density of neurons in their cerebral cortex, giving them a brain power-to-size advantage. 

Dogs are often considered to be more intelligent because they are obedient, responding to a variety of commands from humans. Well, dogs were domesticated some 20,000 years earlier than cats. However, cats can also respond to a human pointing and solve puzzles to find food.

Cats will also persevere in attempting to solve a puzzle, such as accessing food, while dogs tend to give up easily and will look to a nearby person for help when faced with an unsolvable puzzle – dogs literally beg for help!!

When it comes to communicating, cats can produce significantly more sounds than dogs. Cats have a variety of vocalisations for communicating different needs and internal states (moods) and up to 21 different vocalisations have been described in the literature, including a mew/meow, caterwaul, chatter, chirp, growl, hiss, purr and trill. 

Domestic dogs produce 4 main types of sounds: barks, growls, whimpers, howls. The wider range of cat vocalisations allows cats to communicate nuanced messages for short-range interactions. Dogs rely more on body language and scent for complex communication and pack dynamics while using barks and whines to communicate with humans.

Dogs use whining to protest at separation and manipulate their owners in a manner similar to the use of manipulative meowing of domestic cats. Cats evolved with a greater need for subtle communication with their kittens and for close-range interactions, leading to a richer vocal library, while dogs' pack dynamics often rely more on body language and scent

Cats are so clever that they have even learned to deceive humans. The solicitation purr is a sound that mimics the frequency and urgency of a human baby's cry. They use this high-pitched plaintive cry embedded within a purr, to create a frequency range similar to an infant crying.

This behaviour is learned through trial and error to discover which sounds will get the best response from their specific owners. This learned behaviour works because humans find this sound difficult to ignore and it triggers our innate tendency to nurture and provide food or attention. By mixing this urgent sound with a purr, it makes it seem more acceptable and less overtly demanding than just meowing. 

By using this clever vocal trick to communicate their needs, cats are amazingly effective at getting what they want from us.

Cats can also improve our health. While both cats and dogs offer companionship and can lower feelings of isolation, as well as lowering blood pressure, cat purring provides unique stress-reducing frequencies that calm us. The therapeutic frequencies of purring have been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death in humans.

You can’t argue with ‘science’: cats are officially better than dogs!

There are endless quotes about cats, some of which are included here. 

(Versions can vary as they are available from a variety of sources). 

For anyone interested in more quotes about cats V dogs, these two sources are great – https://www.wonderfulquote.com/l/cats-vs-dogs-quotes and https://www.o4wcatproject.com/CatQuotes.html#:~:text=82.,%E2%80%94Stephen%20Baker  – 

Some of these are paraphrased here;

The saying that “Cats were once worshipped as gods. And they have never forgotten it." has been attributed to the author Terry Pratchett but this may not be true as it is similar to another anonymous quote: “Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as Gods. Cats have never forgotten this.”

“Cats will amusingly tolerate humans only until someone comes up with a tin opener that can be operated with a paw.” - Terry Pratchett

I am often heard to say ‘dogs drool, cats rule’ based on what Sassy said in Homeward Bound, “It's like I said all along, poopsie: cats rule and dogs drool.”

“A dog will come when she is called, a cat will take a message and get back to you if they feel like it.”

Quotes about cats highlight their mysterious, independent, and comforting nature, often contrasting them with dogs, praising their elegance, and noting how they bring joy, with famous lines like 

"Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us" - Churchill

"Time spent with cats is never wasted" Although this quote is widely attributed to Freud, there is no evidence that he ever said it. However, he did write to his friend Arnold Zweig: “I, as is well known, do not like cats”. Apparently, he was more of a dog person!

"The smallest feline is a masterpiece" - Da Vinci 

"The cat is, above all things, a dramatist." - Margaret Benson

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein

“What greater gift than the love of a cat.” - Charles Dickens

“A home without a cat — and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat — may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?” - Mark Twain

“I love (cats), they are so nice and selfish. Dogs are TOO good and unselfish. They make me feel uncomfortable. But cats are gloriously human.” - L.M. Montgomery

“Never try to out stubborn a cat.” - Robert A. Heinlein

“Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.” - James Herriot

"A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not." - Ernest Hemingway

“The real objection to the great majority of cats is their insufferable air of superiority. Cats, as a class, have never completely got over the snootiness caused by the fact that in Ancient Egypt they were worshipped as gods. This makes them too prone to set themselves up as critics and censors of the frail and erring human beings whose lot they share.” - The Story of Webster by PG Wodehouse 1932

We can see from this article, that there is science backed evidence to suggest that cats are better than dogs, or, some would say, at least as good! However, cat lovers will always want to believe that cats are best, and dog lovers will always want to believe that dogs are best! 

The debate will probably never be solved and people who own or love both, will most likely always ‘sit on the fence’!!

References

Tavernier C, Ahmed S, Houpt KA, Yeon SC. Feline vocal communication. J Vet Sci. 2020 Jan;21(1):e18. doi: 10.4142/jvs.2020.21.e18. PMID: 32017479; PMCID: PMC7000907.

Olga V Sibiryakova, Ilya A Volodin, Elena V Volodina, Polyphony of domestic dog whines and vocal cues to body size, Current Zoology, Volume 67, Issue 2, April 2021, Pages 165–176, https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoaa042

Villazon L. Why have big cats evolved but not big dogs? BBC Science Focus Magazine.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/why-have-big-cats-evolved-but-not-big-dogs