Conference misery::feline_v1

    Cats also make better pets because you don't have to put up with
    leash laws, and you don't have to buy a license to keep one.
    
    Because cats are smaller (as listed in .0), they eat less food and
    require less living space [I can't imagine an 'indoor' dog]. 

    Well, it depends on the cats and the dogs.
    
    Dogs are generally more _willing_ to perform for humans, so some
    people think they're "smarter."  Cats, on the other hand, are much
    better about solving problems without help.
    
    Size depends on the dogs and cats involved.  Some people have adopted
    biig cats -- and there are no dogs as big as lions and that goes
    double for Siberian tigers.  The big cats eat more food than dogs,
    too (a lion should be fed 14 lbs of food for six days and should
    fast the seventh, when adult, for optimum health).
    
    Cats are cleaner, perhaps because they're solitary rather than pack
    animals.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

    Come now - we love cats because they're cats!
    
    If you want something small that doesn't eat much, get a pet
    rock. 
    
    If you want something clean, get a fish. (I know, opinions vary,
    but they do bathe constantly!)
    
    If you want something smart, have a kid. (Or a pig; I understand
    they're quite intelligent, and don't have to be sent to college.)
    
    But if you want something warm and furry to sit on your face when
    you're trying to sleep, and get fur on your clothes and in your mouth,
    to chew on your ears and wake you up at all hours and be sick on the
    living room rug and sit on your lap *all the time*, especially when
    you're trying to read, write, knit, or otherwise use your hands, and
    bring you dead mice and half-dead birds and snakes and bugs, and not
    ever be there when you want to take pictures, and not come when you
    call most of the time, 
    
    then you want a cat.
    
    Just don't ever try to explain *why*...
    
    -b

    If you want to fetch or retrieve something related to a sport [not in
    reference to computer databases but to things like hunting or frisbee
    playing], get a dog. 
    
    We all know what cats bring in... :-)

    Cats can be taught to fetch. Argus and Pip will do it. My father
    and his cat Penny spend about 10 minutes every nite playing fetch
    the pork-chop bone; he throws it across the room, she takes off
    and catches it (usually in mid-air) and then turns around, brings
    it back and drops it in his shoe.
    
    Deb

    I have a kitty that will play fetch with a ping-pong ball.  If you
    bounce it on a hard floor, she will run after it and bounce right along
    with it (what a jumper that kitty is!).  I think that is about the
    silliest thing I have ever seen a cat do!
    

    
       Speaking of fetch...  I was jamming over a someones apartment
    the other night and his kitten was playing fetch the drumstick.
    ...while I was using them.
    
       re .6>   I must agree... My cat bounces often.
    
    
       Does anyone elses cat wag it's tail if it understands you?
    
    
    PC

    My male cat Fire wags his tail when he's happy and excited.  He
    does it every night when I come home from work.  
    
    Fire used to love cat shows and being judged (believe it or not!!)
    and everytime he was on the judging table the judges would make
    fun of his tail wagging!!!
    
    He also talks to me and will drop everything and come if I call
    him.  He also fetches, but only with the crumpled up outside of
    a cigarette pack or anything that makes a similar noise!!  A friend
    of mine crumpled up an outside of a cigarette pack once while Fire
    was being judged in a show, and she almost had him jump in her lap!!
    
    Funny cat!!
    
    cin
    

    Hotrail talks with her tail.  We'll talk to her, and if she doesn't
    feel like meow talking, her tail works overtime.  I had one for
    14 yrs who would answer with his tail. We'd say "Sebastian" and
    the tip of his tail would twitch (nothing else would move, not even
    his ears) if we kept repeating his name the twitch would work it's
    way up his tail, until the whole tail would fly from side to side,
    and then (and only then) would he turn and look at us and cry; almost
    as if to say, "WHAT, for Pete sake").

    I've had several cats that fetch.  The first, Nikki, fetches pipe
    cleaner spiders, trilling all the way. (Maines tend to trill and
    coo, more like birds than cats).  She'll do it till your arm falls
    off, or until she misplaces the pipe cleaner spider. (We also find
    the spider "taking a drink", i.e. placed carefully in the water
    dish).  Many maines will fetch things, and most breeders have at
    least one fetcher.  Nikki wasn't taught to fetch, we just threw
    the spider and she'd bring it back.
    
    Dring our last batch of abby kitens, both kittens would go crazy
    at the sound of crinkling cellophane.  We had a bag of hard candy,
    indivually wrapped butterscotch if memory serves correctly.  Open
    one and both kittens would be there waiting for you to throw it
    for them.  Once a week, we would sweep up all this yellow stuff
    and get id of it.   (Abby kittens look so much alike that we'd just
    call them all "Abby".  After about 8-10 weeks we'd get to where
    we could distinguish them.)
    
    Our Abby female, Basrah, is easily the best mother of all our cats.
    When she doesn't have kittens, she'll adopt something (currently
    two crocheted balls) as kittens.  She'll  carry one in her mouth,
    crying for the other till someone notices and speaks to her. Then
    she'll drop it and dash off.  We find "kittens" on the feeding table,
    in the litter box, at the water bowl.  It was great fun when Basrah
    had real kittens to get one of the crocheted balls, toss it to the
    kitten and say "Play with your brother". (Okay, so it doesn't take
    much to amuse me.  Of course, I once saw an entire hotel room of
    breeders cheering on a breeding.)
    
    Few of my cats show happiness with their tails. In Maine coons,
    wagging tails too hard could cause concussions (Maine coon tails
    should reach over the back to at least the back of the neck.) Abbys
    are "too dignified" to wag, but they tend to stand the fur on end
    a lot more than othe cat types.  I probably should talk about invisible
    abby monsters sometime.
    
    Dave
    

    This is beginning to sound more like the "stupid pet tricks"
    show than Dogs vs. Cats, but I can't resist adding the "toy"
    we (people) have most fun with.  I can't say for certain that
    the cats have as much fun; on the other hand, they keep going
    back for more!
    
    We take a long strip of scotch tape, and roll it into a ball-type
    shape, taking care to keep sticky surface OUT.  Well, when it is
    flicked/batted across the floor, it has that crinkly sound.  
    But...when the cat bats it or sniffs it, it sticks 'til they shake
    their paw or head or bat it off.  Then they circle it, and have
    another try.  They'll keep at it for a long time.  Often we just
    use other crinkly things, so when they get the tape it is once
    again a novelty (short memory!).  Masking tape from unwrapped
    packages works just as well -- that's how we/they discovered this
    brilliant feat.  Great fun all around!
    
    Penelope

    In our house we have three dog-cats and one cat-cat.  The cat-cat
    is just a kitten so maybe she will change.
    
    We call them dog-cats because of their apparent lack of cat like
    dignity.  Whenever guests come over, these three make fools of
    themselves trying to out cute each other.  Monroe will throw himself
    at their feet, rolling on his back, begging to have his belly rubbed.
    Winston will start gathering up all his toys and bring them to the
    feet of the guest so that they can play fetch.  And Jesse will rub
    against the guests legs in a typical cat like manner meowing pitifully
    in an ever increasing pitch.
    
    The kitten just hops around as usual, unaware that anything different
    is happening.  She hops around and my husband goes "do de do de
    do" a phrase that aptly describes her attitude.  Nothing phases
    this kitten.
    
    JoAnn

    My friends have often said to me, "Cats are stupid.. they don't do
    anything for you, they don't do tricks, and they don't go get your
    slippers and newpaper when you ask them...like DOGS do." and to this 
    statement I say...."NAY, NAY..you haven't met my cats!"
    
    Both of my cats roll over when I stand above them and say "roll
    over" making small circles with my extended arm.   Both of my cats
    will bring *anything* back to me that I throw across the room. 
    (That includes one of those LARGE slippers that have sheeps wool on the
    inside).   This slipper is the same size as my cats, and it's such
    a joy watching them try to jog back to me with this slipper dragging
    between their front legs!  *very cute*
    
    But, the thing that started this "fetching" game was one of those
    nights when I was too lazy to get off the couch to throw away my
    empty cigarette pack and "missed by a long shot" when I threw it
    at the basket.    Suddenly, I looked down and saw it at my feet
    again, with a very excited kitten looking up at me with such
    anticipation in her eyes!    From that day on, I can't throw anything
    in my apartment without having it brought back to me.   They're
    favorite toy is a stuffed Garfield.   That poor thing has definitely
    seen better days!
    
    BTW, I have more cigarettes packs under my couch, chair, bed, in
    my tub, in my closet, in the kitchen sink, and under the refrigerator
    than I know what to do with.   
    
    So, to those people that say to me "cats are dumber than dogs" I
    just smile and say...."that's YOUR opinion!"
    
    regards,
    Kelley
                                                   

    I have successfully taught my cat to ignore me....
    
            "Aja. Ignore me!" 
                              (no response)
            "Good Kitty!"
    
    I know this is a trick because if I say...
    
            "Aja, Ignore me but move your ears slightly."
    
                                                       ...she does!
    
    Just try to teach a dog to ignore you when you call it!
    
    Edd

re: cats carrying things

You reminded me of something our Sam did to us when he was a kitten.

Seems we left him alone one day.  He got annoyed and hid one of our 
pillows.

Our bedroom is on the second floor.  We finally found the pillow under the 
bed in the guest bedroom on the first floor.  Picture in your mind a 
3-month-old kitten dragging a bedpillow down the stairs...

Ray

    re:.14
    
    What you have there is a truelly gifted cat!  Did you happen to
    read the note on gifted cats?  Maybe you could catch a few pointers
    on how to continue to stimulate his superior intelligence.  It is
    hard job, but someone has to do it.
    
    JoAnn