Cats and dogs: Best friends or deadly enemies? What the owners of cats and dogs living in the same household think about their relationship with people and other pets

Abstract

Although popular culture describes them as mortal enemies, more and more often, dogs and cats live under the same roof. Does this make them best friends? Can sharing the same social and physical environment make them similar? This study compares the approaches of dogs and cats living in the same household have towards humans and other pets as perceived by the owner. Questionnaires collected from 1270 people owning both dog(s) and cat(s) were analysed. Most dogs and cats living together are playful with familiar humans (76.2%) but dogs have a more sociable approach towards strangers and conspecifics than cats (P<0.001). Moreover, the percentage of dogs that have a playful relationship with the owner (84.0%) was higher than cats (49.2%; P<0.001). Dogs and cats living together eat in different places and show different mutual interactions: more dogs lick the cat (42.8%) and more cats ignore the dog (41.8%) than vice versa (P<0.001). However, most dogs and cats sleep at least occasionally (68.5%) and play together (62.4%; P<0.001). Although some body postures, such as the tail’s position, are interpreted differently by the two species, the greater proportions of dogs and cats show a relaxed response to several kinds of approaches of their roommate. Our questionnaire confirms the common beliefs about the sociability of the dog and the privacy of the cat, but this does not result in continuous internal struggles. Most cohabitations are peaceful. Moreover, it is true that they speak different languages, but they seem to understand each other well and interpret each other's approaches in the right way. Thus, aspiring owners should not blindly believe popular assumptions, but both knowledge and respect for species-specific pet behaviours are essential to establish a balance in the household.

The immunological nature of the pathological effects of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens

“…When the aliens observe that while a disturbing rage repeatedly follows the entry of a single cat into porous house A, the entry of several cats into a porous house B is not followed by any disturbance at all, they must necessarily be surprised until the reality illustrated by a thought experiment reveals the nature of the effects through which cats cause the disturbing rage in porous houses which permits occupants of such houses to be protected from them to be that which does not depend on the nature of cats since it is a nature that makes them prefer to ignore or escape at the sight of the dog, 10 the source of such effects which they could not know in the absence of this thought experiment.…”

“…As soon as this reality reveals the source of the disturbing rage as an animal which could either be sociable or aggressive in its response to the presence of the cat, 10 the aliens realize that the nature of the effects that bring about the disturbing rage in porous houses, which permits the occupants of porous houses to be protected from such effects, depends on a causative influence that cats exert on dogs. They realize that when immune mechanisms are exposed to conditions that permit them to reduce this influence, the disturbing rage will not be produced in a porous house, irrespective of how great the number of pets in the house may be or how different the nature of such pets may be, if they all exert causative influences on the dog that have the same protection-permitting nature so that when the pathway through which the disturbing rage is produced by the dog in response to any of them is blocked, the influences of the others will not cause the disturbing rage because it is through the same pathway that the dog responds to them.…”

The origin of immunity by means of prior infection and vaccination with implications for the origin of species

“…And this old deduction is that the influence of a cat causes a disturbing rage through effects that depend on a destructive nature that the cat uniquely possesses, which requires the feline to be eliminated from the house for the occupants to be exempted from disturbance, a deduction which disagrees with the experience that a thought experiment that illustrates the reality in which such disturbance is brought about would enable them to predict. This experience, which would demonstrate the knowledge obtained through such a thought experiment to be knowledge of reality is that the nature of cats is that which makes them prefer to ignore or escape at the sight of the true source of the disturbing rage, the dog, which could either be sociable or aggressive in its response to the presence of the cat 19 depending on whether or not immune mechanisms, which serve the purpose of exempting the occupants of the house from the dog's disturbing rage, are exposed to conditions that permit them to block the pathway through which such rage is brought about by the mechanisms of aggression in response to the harmless presence of the cat.…”

The Origin of Immunity by Means of Prior Infection and Vaccination with Implications for the Origin of Species

“…Let the dog suddenly begin to produce a disturbing rage in response to the presence of these different cats and let the aliens, despite having observed the unexpected asymptomatic entry of these feline variants in our earlier illustration, continue to hold on to their old logical deduction because, without the aid of a thought experiment, they cannot know the reality in which the mechanisms of aggression bring about a disturbing rage in response to the presence of such cats from their location outside the porous house,. And this old deduction is that the influence of a cat causes a disturbing rage through effects that depend on a destructive nature that the cat uniquely possesses, which requires the feline to be eliminated from the house for the occupants to be exempted from disturbance, when a thought experiment would have revealed to them that the nature of cats is that which makes them prefer to ignore or escape at the sight of the true source of the disturbing rage, the dog, which could either be sociable or aggressive in its response to the presence of the cat 19 depending on whether or not immune mechanisms, which serve the purpose of exempting the occupants of the house from the dog's disturbing rage, are exposed to conditions that permit them to block the pathway through which such rage is brought about by the mechanisms of aggression in response to the harmless presence of the cat.…”