Who's the better companion: cats or dogs?

[epenguin]

I was attacked by a pride* of cats once. Wel actually they went for my dog first. But I don't hold it against them. They are very nice in ones or twos, but a but snobbish, you never quite break into their world.


*i guess this must be the word since lions are cats, though I have never heard it used nor any other word for a bunch of cats.

 

[micromass]

How does the data show loyalty? It shows them going into other people's houses.

It shows that their territory is around the house of their human. Furthermore, they spend most of the time near of in the house of their human. So they do acknowledge that it is "their home". I would think that is loyalty.

 

[AlephZero]

It shows that their territory is around the house of their human.

You could argue that is selection bias in the experiment. If you set up an experiment by asking the humans who live in a village about their cats and whether they want to participate in it, you are excluding any cats in the area which no humans consider to be "their cat", or cats that have stopped visiting "their human" for a while for reasons known only to the cat (like the cat in my previous post that went AWOL for a year).

 

[zoobyshoe]

It shows that their territory is around the house of their human. Furthermore, they spend most of the time near of in the house of their human. So they do acknowledge that it is "their home". I would think that is loyalty.

Camping out in the vicinity of, and never straying too far from, an extremely reliable source of food, water, and shelter, shouldn't be confused with loyalty to a human. The fact is, cats always seem to be checking out alternate sources of necessities as well.

 

[mfb]

How does the data show loyalty? It shows them going into other people's houses.

If that would rule out loyalty, no human would ever be loyal.

See micromass.

You could argue that is selection bias in the experiment. If you set up an experiment by asking the humans who live in a village about their cats and whether they want to participate in it, you are excluding any cats in the area which no humans consider to be "their cat", or cats that have stopped visiting "their human" for a while for reasons known only to the cat (like the cat in my previous post that went AWOL for a year).

No one questioned the existence of cats without an owner (as seen by the cat or by humans). The discussion is about "do loyal cats exist".

 

[epenguin]

Camping out in the vicinity of, and never straying too far from, an extremely reliable source of food, water, and shelter, shouldn't be confused with loyalty to a human.

True - nobody says mice are loyal.

 

[zoobyshoe]

True - nobody says mice are loyal.

Right. Having a territory, for cats, is a matter of familiarity with the relative benefits and dangers of an environment, not a matter of loyalty to people. As a cat "owner" I have never been able to induce one of my cats to follow me more than three blocks from the house. They freak out and become fearful as the environment becomes unfamiliar to them, and eventually turn around and head back. Whatever affection they feel for me is over-ridden by their need to understand and be comfortable with their environment. A dog, on the other hand, will pretty much follow its owner into hell. A dog's territory often seems to be defined as some radius around their owner. A cat's territory, not.