“Cats, not to be trusted.”
There is some truth to that when you stop to think about it. Cats have the personality to take what they want when they want it. When you compare cats to dogs, cats pretty much trumped dogs in terms of what either get from their human counterparts. Cats pretty much have total freedom, they are given an indoor spot to shit, when they want love they will take it, when they don’t they can hide, sleep as much as they want, play if they want, and typically get treats for doing nothing. Dogs on the other not so much.
This initial thought process started when one of my cats decided to sit and stare at me for 10 minutes before I provided the petting he was after. Now this particular cat is pretty strong willed, and will repeatedly jump into your lap even when you toss him out. He will bully you into cuddles until you relent. This personality trait got me thinking about which of the two common household animals are smarter. Now most people typically side one way or the other, but I’m an all-around animal lover so I tried to look at the question objectively. This also happens to touch on the idea that cats domesticated themselves, rather than domesticated by humans.
When looking at which animal is smarter, I’m not looking at which animal has the greater capacity to learn. I’m more interested in which animal has the greater accomplishments overall. Dogs are great because they do have that capacity to learn commands, and remain loyal to those they see as their leader. Dogs were also domesticated and breed to perform different function, such as herding and hunting. However, cats on the other hand simply adapted and created a symbiotic relationship with humans. This is where I begin to believe that cats are smarter than we may believe them to be. Cats became the street clearers for vermin, which in turn earned them the protection of the town as well as some of the people. They continued to adapt to their surroundings so much that they have been welcomed into our house, given food, shelter, and their own personal bathroom. All the while not having to learn any new skill sets. Dogs on the other hand took a little longer for them to be considered family, and they never really adapted to living side by side with humans on their own. As the primary use for dogs were task related rather than pet related. Not to say either side didn’t have its outliers.
This is where I began to start wondering why cats were revered in Ancient Egypt. Now, I had known that cats had a certain level of status within Egyptian society and the God Bastet took the form of a cat. But I never really knew why they revered cats, or if there was even a reason. So what started off as being bullied for love by one of my cats, turned into a journey of the mind. And to that point, this journey was not all for nothing. While the reason for the reverence of cats was somewhat lack luster, mostly because they cleaned the streets and that earned the respect of the Egyptians. I may have been secretly hoping for some alien type connection where the Egyptians had though that cats were the great makers of the world. Thus making them our secret overlords without us even realizing it due to the simple fact they basically get everything they want with little effort. However, I still think that is pretty cool as they performed a function and earned a spot in society. Whereas dogs were more forced into performing tasks by being trained and bred for them.
What I will leave you with is another tid bit from my journey. Apparently if a cat died that was part of a family, that family would shave their eyebrows to mourn their loss. There, that’s a thing you know now.
TL:DR – Cats are histories great manipulators that have worked their way into our homes with little effort. Should a cat of yours die, you should probably shave your eyebrows to honor them.
gummygunk
discoholicmusic
romaincrisis
stormborns
prguitarman
