Cat Person or Dog Person?

~Happy Belated Valentines Day!~

I read recently that "dog people," think of themselves as more social, outgoing and friendly, whereas "cat people" think of themselves as creative, philosophical, and nontraditional.  These are, of course, generalizations and I'm not sure if this is totally true or not.  But I do know that any discussion among pet owners is bound to reveal clearly that there are dog people and there are cat people.

Yesterday we spent the day with "cat-people" when we took Dale to an adoption day the rescue he belongs to was having.  I really made an effort to try and get acquainted with the people from the rescue that were there.  I meet new people practically every day at work, and I think that I'm pretty good at initial and casual conversation, but even I have to admit that it was a tough crowd.  Like their cat-counterparts, conversation with the people volunteering for the rescue was limited to few words and mostly silence.  We were there for nearly 5 tiring hours and I was feeling it was a total waste of a day because there was no interest in Dale and because I just wasn't getting the 'warm and fuzzy feeling' from anyone within the rescue.

Then as we were getting ready to leave, someone named Julie introduced herself as the person who began the rescue more than 10 years ago. We had a delightful conversation about Dale, cats, and continuing to foster for the rescue. It shouldn't have been much of a surprise when Julie told us she'd had Golden Retrievers for many years, and currently has two of them. Based solely on my own experience, I think that Julie's personality indicates to me that she's like me in that she loves both cats and dogs and has devoted her life to helping one over the other.  Which is why today I'm thinking that it's really all about the individual animal and the relationship you have with it and not whether you prefer a cat or a dog. What do you think?

~Dale's official rescue photo~

Post Script about placing Dale in another home.  After a lot of thought, we decided it would be best to put Dale up for adoption through the rescue.  It was a really hard choice to make because all of the the dogs, in particular Charlie, get along really well with him and he would be a good fit in our home -- but there's one dog that makes that difficult and that dog is Shadow.  Shadow has many, many good qualities, but like some dogs, he has a high prey drive that we are unable to redirect.  I know that we could keep Dale safe from Shadow (probably) ninety-nine-percent of the time.  But Dale has no fear whatsoever of the dogs and that one time when the two may accidentally meet could and probably would be tragic. And as sad as I am to think about Dale leaving, I would be even more sad if something happened to him.

~Shadow~