Birds are jerks, even to other birds.
In related news, Axios morning thingie tells us the obvious news that Dog People Are Happier Than Cat People!!!
Dog owners were much happier than cat owners in the respected General Social Survey for 2018, the WashPost’s Christopher Ingram reports:
- “Dog owners are about twice as likely as cat owners to say they’re very happy, with people owning both falling somewhere in between.”
- “Dog people … are slightly happier than those without any pets. Those in the cat camp … are significantly less happy than the pet-less.”
- Why it matters … “These differences are quite large: The happiness divide between dog and cat owners is bigger than the one between people who identify as middle and upper class.”
There’s a catch: “[C]orrelation doesn’t equal causation, and there are probably a number of other differences between dog and cat owners that account for some of the differences.”
- “The General Social Survey data show that dog owners, for instance, are more likely to be married and own their own homes than cat owners, both factors known to affect happiness and life satisfaction.”
P.S. … The survey found 6 in 10 households have at least one pet.
Have at it in the comments.
Mock Paper Scissors 
“dog owners, for instance, are more likely to be married and own their own homes than cat owners”
Middle-class sheep homeowners. Squares, even!
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I thought you guys told me cats owned the hoomin and permitted them to live in their houses? Did I get that wrong?
Wink,
TG
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Our Four Fuzzy Freeloaders own this house, and [kindly] LET us pay the bills!
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“Damn, Stan, you’ve been at this for 1/2 hr! There’s others waiting doncha know. I suppose you’re gonna whine to TG about this, aren’t ‘cha ?”
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Feline Mama -Who do you think tipped me off, hmm?
Birds are jerks, and also snitches.
Rgds,
TG
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There’s a reason they call them stool pigeons.
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Cats are extra-terrestrials ship-wrecked here a half-million years ago who in a desperate race for survival before devolving due to the low quality of life genetically interfered with the development of the proto-humans they found roaming the grasslands of Northern Africa to breed caretakers until their rescue.
Dogs are, well, dogs.
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Now, How can ANYONE argue this logic?? Hmm???? Totally makes Sense!! Thank You & say Good Night, Gracie !!!!
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Cats may be extra-terrestrials. I’m inclined to agree but the first Felidae evolved 25 million years ago and the lovable cat we know emerged about 5 million years ago so that space ship landed a lot longer ago than you think. And the earliest recorded domestic cat came from the island of Cyprus, which is why they can tolerate low water levels (unlike dogs).
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I like birds. They are not jerks. Republicans are jerks. Cats kill a lot of birds, often just for grins. Therefore I don’t like cats much. Cats do not kill many Republicans. If they did I would re-evaluate my feelings about them.
Dogs rarely hurt birds, and occasionally chase cats. Therefore I like dogs. My dog, whose name is Kat (really, it is), chases Republicans with wild abandon and once nipped at an armed Oath Keeper’s pants leg, which makes me like her even more.
My position on this issue is right, and objectively so, though I do reluctantly accept anyone’s right to be embarrassingly and ludicrously wrong.
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As always, I’m not making any of this up, btw.
Her name really is Kat.
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Good kitty!
My dog Duck likes to hunt birds – in the air, in water, belly crawling through grass. He is totally fixated on them and is disappointed that the cat and I are not. The great thing about Duck is that he doesn’t really care about politics as long as someone is throwing the ball.
https://roosterville.wordpress.com/2019/01/31/warming-up/
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I like birds too but they are little dinosaurs and dinosaurs were the dominant earth species for hundreds of millions of years until the “Big One” wiped them all out, except a few avian dinosaurs, 66 million years ago. Since then, avian dinosaurs have diversified enormously.
One of the sad things is that, had the “Big One” not occurred, dinosaurs might have evolved further and become a seriously sentient species. Instead, all we have are birds and crocs/alligators.
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When I had a dog, I was miserable. I had to make my schedule around the dog. Couldn’t do anything impulsively, like go out to dinner, or to happy hour last minute with the coworkers, because the dog had to be walked or fed or whatever.
Now I have a cat, and she just eats whenever she wants, and uses her litter box when she needs to. Much less stressful. She doesn’t go outside, so she doesn’t kill birds or other vertebrates. She does give any bugs that get into the house a run for their money tho.
As with all in life, YMMV.
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Karla –
Dogs are a lot of work, it’s like having a perpetual pre-verbal 2-year old. I miss all of my mutts and I hope to someday have another, but not right now, for all the reasons you list.
My opinion is that dogs make the hoomin a better person; if you want to be a better person you should get a dog.
(And being allergic to cats I only have that on hearsay that they, too, improve the hoomin.)
Birds, however, are jerks.
Rgds,
TG
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I think my mistake was getting the dog as a puppy when I was a single mom of a 2-yr-old human. I was extremely overwhelmed. Now that my daughter’s grown and lives across the country from me, the cat is just enough company.
But yeah, I get someone to come in if I’m gone more than 2 days.
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Yes, dogs are a commitment. Fortunately, in our neighborhood, we can afford for a dog walker/feeder for when we are out of town short-term. But you also can’t just leave cats by themselves for long periods of time.
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I like cat fights (if you know what I mean and I think you do).
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Hummers are among the biggest jerks I’ve been dive-bombed by one of those supersonic flying ice picks; one got altogether too territorial over the bottlebrush tree in Mom’s backyard, the one just outside the patio door…
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I had a Prof who grew roses and would bring them into the lab. One day as he walked across campus with his brown-bag lunch and some roses, he was dive bombed by a mocking bird. The bird grabbed a rose and the lunch and took off with them. Rude!
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Read somewhere cats carry a ‘virus’ that can be fatal to infants and supposedly also crawl into the brains of their owners to affect their behaviour. Not sure I believe it, but it seems very much like a cat thang as opposed to a dog thang… Dogs are happy just being happy.
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If they carry a virus I don’t think they carry it in little buckets. IYKWIMAITYD
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