Yes, that is the kind of title that invites misunderstanding so let me state my intention right off, I think it is almost always a good sign when you meet a woman to discover that she has a history with and deep appreciation for big dogs. A woman who really loves big dogs and knows how to get along with them and how to get them to do what she wants, is most probably exactly the woman for any man worthy of his sex.
Note the "probably" above. There is no such thing as a sure thing. There are even cat people, of both sexes, who can be good partners. I can think of one off the top of my head and there must be more if I really put my brain to work.
Yes, I'm being glib but I'm not entirely kidding. It has to do with sociability and it's not really news.
A recent study purports to confirm the news that dogs are smarter than cats but this is old news. What a lot of people may not realize is the reason why they are smarter. Here's why:
It was often thought that the feline pet was smarter than its canine counterpart because it needed less attention but researchers have discovered that cat’s brains are smaller because they are less social.This, as I say, is old news. Animals that form social groups are unfailingly more intelligent than loners. The same is true within groups. The lone wolf, no matter what Kipling believed, is going to be less intelligent than its pack-bound companions. The same is true of humans: the romantic teenage girl who insists that the anti-social rebel she has fallen in lust with is merely "misunderstood" is deceiving herself and quite possibly drifting into a very dangerous situation.
People who like dogs are people who want a pet they interact with socially. Now nothing here means that anything necessarily follows about a person who has a cat. They may just not want the hassle.
The guy who orders Coors Light at a bar may be another helpless victim of lifestyle advertising or it may be that he just doesn't care that much about beer and is ordering the only beer he has actually heard of in order to be social. The woman who lives alone with her can't may well be another neurasthenic, high-maintenance hellcat (see the wisdom embedded right in our language) whose only successful relationship is with her cat because it requires no real effort from her or she may be a perfectly wonderful person who has a cat because she wants a low-maintenance pet that is more cuddly and animated than a goldfish or a cactus.
But whatever pet the grown woman might have, nothing, in my not even mildly humble opinion, can replace the crucial role of a great huge, slobbering, shedding dog in a girl's upbringing. A girl who has had to deal with one of these beasts will never be ineffectual and helpless nor will she be the type who refuses to tell you what she wants or needs and then gets angry when you don't guess correctly. A dog in her upbringing will cure her of these faults early and permanently.
In addition, a girl who gets knocked flat on her butt by an unruly dog can learn to train the dog to behave better. A girl who gets scratched by an angry feline can only learn that life is unfair and that there is nothing she can do about it but whine and cry.
Not any type of dog, but one from one of the following groups, starting with the very best and working down:
Sporting dogs (always the choice for preps)Trust me, if you are raising a girl, you will do her a huge favour by making sure she has a succession of these dogs through her formative years.
Proper snuffling hounds (Important exception: not an Afghan Hound, a dog only too well qualified to teach girls how to be beautiful but stupid and useless)
Working dogs (with some exceptions such as Ye Olde English Sheepdog which is a fraud and not a true working dog)
Some Terriers are also great dogs but they are really the quintessential boys dog.
A Clumber Spaniel demonstrate the breed's deep appreciation for the finer things in life by polishing off a crème brûlé he snagged off the table while diners' attention was elsewhere.
TSE liked cats. Granted, he wasn't a female and he wasn't a good partner (not until older, that is) but I can't let this go by without mentioning it. One memoir gives a story about Eliot roosting in an over-stuffed armchair by the fire at his friend Frank's farm. The poet was almost completely invisible, being completely covered with the family cats, all of whom wished a place on his lap, and surrounded by the family children.
ReplyDeleteSo there.
I am going to react badly to this anyway - my cat is social. Too social, sometimes. At 6:00 this morning I woke up with a "whoop" because my loving cat had come to greet me and buffeted me so hard in the chest that the air whooshed out of me. She then curled up in my midriff, warmer than any hot water bottle.
I love all animals and wish I'd lived up to the childhood dream of being a vet, but I will not stand by and listen quietly to someone say that cats are less social, loving, needy or hilarious than dogs.
I was unnecessarily provocative wasn't I? My main point was not that cats are bad but that dogs are good. And yet there are snide digs at cats and their owners throughout.
ReplyDeleteI can't even offer the excuse that I couldn't help myself. I could have but chose not to. Actually, I was quite gleeful about doing it.
But dogs are more social than cats and I quite seriously do believe that a dog in a girl's upbringing is a very good thing. When I was single, I always checked for two traits when I met a girl:
1. That she she admired and respected her father. (My theory is that everyone loves their mother most up until sometime in early to mid adolescence and then they come to appreciate their father. Failure to make this step is a warning to my mind.)
2. That she be a dog person. A big-dog person.
The second is perhaps less vital than the first, there are women who, through no fault of their own, are insufficiently exposed to dogs or are exposed to dogs of the wrong type. That said, a woman who loves big dogs is usually a good solid bet for love and life.