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rfmcdonaldKitties!
(Omar Mouallem at the Globe and Mail explored Saturday the increasing popularity of the cat relative to dogs. Not that it's a zero-sum situation, of course, but he notes that "lolcat" gets five million hits on Google versus the less than seventy thousand of "loldog".)
Long, do read.
(Omar Mouallem at the Globe and Mail explored Saturday the increasing popularity of the cat relative to dogs. Not that it's a zero-sum situation, of course, but he notes that "lolcat" gets five million hits on Google versus the less than seventy thousand of "loldog".)
According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's report on pet food trends, cat ownership is on the upswing, and outpacing that of dogs. Eight-and-a-half million cats were owned by Canadians in 2010, compared to 5 million dogs. It's normal for pet adoptions to slow in recessions, but only dogs have felt the bite of this downturn – ownership is down 3 per cent from the year before.
How did the cat, maligned by dog-lovers as lazy, snobby and boring, suddenly climb the upholstered social-media ladder?
Dogs have long been favoured by film and TV, almost always portrayed as having a heart of gold (remember Lassie, The Littlest Hobo). Last year, a dog (Uggie) generated Oscar buzz of his own, with fans pleading that the Jack Russell terrier get a nod in the Best Supporting Actor category for The Artist (Uggie did get an invitation to the ceremony). And when director Michel Hazanavicius accepted the award for best picture, he was sure to thank Uggie the Dog.
Meanwhile in the feline camp, there are characters like Garfield and Felix – classic antiheroes, too sarcastic or cool for their own good. In the 1970s, when McGruff the Crime Dog was urging kids to take a bite out of crime, Fritz the Cat appeared in comic strips as a sex-crazed druggie.
As YouTube shows, videos their own owners take portray cats as eccentric, skittish, self-satisfied and even narcissistic. The cats we like, tweet and share would likely only alert you to a well if they were thirsty. They're fickle, quirky and can't be controlled, but they're also intelligent and sometimes sophisticated. These are all qualities the me-first Internet generation is said to share – is that what's driving up their popularity?
Or could it be that the phenomenon of lolcats has endeared pet owners to the humour and personality cats can deliver, traits dogs have owned until now?
“Cats are more interesting and entertaining than other animals because they show a wide range of emotions,” says Ms. Huh.
[. . .]
“I used to be really different if I had a cat shirt on,” says Hamilton-based veterinarian Elizabeth O'Brien, a feline practitioner for 27 years. “Now people are wearing them all the time.”
She says the spark in ownership is partly due to their rising status in pop culture, but also to urbanization. Not only are cats more adaptive to condo and apartment living, but more suited to lives of owners commuting between work, daycare and sports practice.
She has also observed many retiring life-long dog owners who are downsizing to cats along with condos. “They still want to have a pet … so a cat is easier.”
Long, do read.
