Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[G-Flex]

I've had pretty much the same experience.


I've had two cats.

One was a short-haired, sleek black cat. The shedding was never terrible. I mean, yeah, we'd brush her during the parts of the year when she shed the most, but having to spend five minutes brushing your cat every once in a while is hardly a raw deal. She went outside to go to the bathroom, knew how to take care of herself, never made any of us die or gave anybody problems (except people who recently moved in who were already allergic to cats, but again, people can be allergic to dogs and other animals too so that's hardly an issue), and she groomed herself well to the point where we let her on all the furniture and it never made anything gross or particularly hairy.

The other was this giant goofball of a fluffy long-haired cat, probably part Maine Coon. He liked to lie down in sinks and do other silly things. He had a lot more fur, so more shedding on average, but it was probably LESS of a problem with him because it tended to just come out in tufts, which is easier to manage than sporadic hairs.

I've also known many other cats, none of which had the kinds of problems that are being mentioned.

Comparatively speaking, I've known dogs, and they were all nice dogs, but I wouldn't want them getting on furniture that I also lie down on, because, well, dogs just don't keep themselves quite as clean as cats do.

Cats and dogs are just different. They do different things, are intelligent in different ways, and have different strong/weak points about them. I personally don't know if I'd own a dog, but I don't have anything against them.

[G-Flex]

Toxoplasmosis is kind of a tricky subject, but cultural prevalence of it seems to have more to do with other things than cats.

Also: Getting asthma? Are you serious? Yeah, some people are allergic to cat hair/dander, but that applies to dogs and a hell of a lot of other things too.

And dogs shed. I hate to break it to you, but they do, and generally-speaking cats groom their own fur fairly well unless they're obese trainwrecks or otherwise really messed up.


I'm not even going to touch the "dying" part because it's so out of left field.

I think you're just trying to hate cats at this point.

I mean, I don't give a damn if you dislike cats. That's fine. But you're giving completely bogus arguments about it just to justify your own personal tastes, not to mention being fairly caustic about it here.

I'm caustic as a matter of personal pride, but cats are filthy animals, their skin, hair, feces and mucus are all laden with TONS of horrible stuff that is contagious to humans.

I don't know if cats "cause asthma, omg!" but the rate of asthmatic patients living with cats is higher then asthmatic patients living without them. There is a direct coorelation, but I do not claim to know the cause of it.

I don't think it's terribly hard to see the correlation.

Some people are sensitive/allergic to animal dander of ALL kinds. You'll probably see the same kind of correlation for dogs.

If you don't want to get sick and get brain parasites, don't get a cat. Yes, they are adorable. No, I don't want to go insane if i happen to rub my eye after petting them.

I have known many cats, and many people who own cats.

I have never known a single person who has gone insane or gotten sick because of a cat, except for people who had allergic reactions to the dander, which are pre-existing conditions which they already know about.

Also, toxoplasmosa host rates can get up to 80% or more in some countries, and guess what? It largely DOESN'T have to do with rate of cat ownership.

Whats wrong with getting a dog? The worst you can get is intestinal parasites if you trip on LSD and eat your dog's poop in the name of science. Otherwise they actually make you healthier (according to certain studies conducted with elderly people with dogs compared to elderly people without dogs), but cats? Man... I'd rather not have them anywhere near me, just because they will hop off my lap with 0.5 pounds of shed fur and 0.035 pounds of parasites.

Studies have shown that having a cat makes you healthier.
Studies have shown that OWNING A PET makes you healthier.

And seriously, stop about the shedding. Cat shedding is just NOT a serious issue, and never has been in my experience.

[Gunner-Chan]

I find it horribly stereotypical that a fair bit of DF players seem to dislike cats. Plus all that crap Montag is saying can apply to any animal, and even other people for some of them. I know people that are LESS clean and socially adjusted than any cat I ever knew.

[Strife26]

We need one thread for all Scamp related information . . . Just a thought.

[LegoLord]

Where the hell are these guys getting this stuff about causing insanity and deadly parasites?  That's total bogus, dude.  You must be thinking of abandoned strays, in which case any animal could be like that.

My cats don't shed that much, and maybe, MAYBE, after a year of having, say, a new rug that the cats like to sleep on, there will be a thin layer of cat fur. 

Cats really aren't filthy animals; if you think that, you probably have a very bad phobia against germs.  Please, just bath a cat and a dog, wait a week, and see which one smells nicer.  Most of the time, it'll be the cat.  As for spraying, un-neutered male dogs will do that too.

Don't get me wrong, dogs are fine, but calling cats filthy, parisite-infected things inferior to dogs is, frankly, insane.  Or stupid.

[Gantolandon]

Cats are even less dirty than dogs. They clean their fur and are extremely easy to toilet-train. Spraying isn't a problem if the cat is neutered or permitted to go out. The only annoyance are ticks which they catch (and drop later) constantly.

Seriously, these animals are more dangerous to themselves, than to anyone nearby. Especially their urinary tracts are a great fuckup of evolution.

[Aqizzar]

I'll say this, shedding is dangerous for one reason.  If it's a white cat and you like dark clothes, or vice versa, you can either resign to looking like a tool, or kiss your wardrobe goodbye.

[Rilder]

The only annoyance are ticks which they catch (and drop later) constantly.

If you get some guinea hens for around your house then you won't have a tick problem. (Get them as chicks so they sort of bind to your property)

[Aqizzar]

The only annoyance are ticks which they catch (and drop later) constantly.

If you get some guinea hens for around your house then you won't have a tick problem. (Get them as chicks so they sort of bind to your property)

Yes, I'm sure the Dallas city council would be overjoyed at me raising chickens in my yard.

[Gantolandon]

If you get some guinea hens for around your house then you won't have a tick problem. (Get them as chicks so they sort of bind to your property)

I have no infrastructure to keep poultry. I don't even live on a farm.

[Scamps]

meow

[Okenido]

meow

Fluffy Wambler.

Just don't do this... Please...

[LegoLord]

Ticks normally aren't a problem;  my outdoor cat only rarely gets ticks, and my indoor cat has never had one.

[umiman]

Just like I hate all things that consume more input than produce more output, I hate cats.

[The Mad Engineer]

Cats output love.


And tallow.