It's dog-lovers vs. cat lovers

ChronWatch ^ | 8/15/04 | Bert Prelutsky

[GaretGarrett]

Election: It's the Cat People vs. the Dog Lovers Written by Burt Prelutsky Sunday, August 15, 2004

All the pundits who are forecasting the November election, busily analyzing blue states, red states, and those all-important purple swing states, are spinning their wheels. At the risk of sounding even more presumptuous than usual, I contend that they are wasting their time and yours. If you want to know who's going to emerge victorious, all you really need to do is find out how many people have cats living with them and how many have dogs. The cat people, I have decided, will go overwhelmingly for Kerry; the dog lovers will do the same for Bush. It isn't simply that women, who often prefer felines to canines, tend to vote Democratic. It really goes to the nature of the animals........

[PA Engineer]

Both of my cats are voting for Bush.

[trussell]

You are very welcome.

I decided to use that to protect the word dog from a certain group of people.

[Hildy]

Two very spoiled republican girls

[trussell]

Beautiful baby girls!! I am very partial to shih tzu babies! That is what the one is, isn't it? Maybe Shih Tzu mixed with poodle? Both of them are absolutely gorgeous!!

[Hildy]

Daisy, the one on the left is a Shi-Tzu. Lilly, on the right is a Maltese Poodle mix. They are the best dogs, but personality wise they are completely different! Lilly is very smart and independent. She's really aware of what's going on around her. Daisy is just a loving and eating machine!!!! She's not too bright, but we adore her!!!

[GeronL]

The Viking Kitties are not voting for Kerry, and neither is my cat.

---

Viking Kitties have won the GOLD MEDAL in the 2,000 meter ZOTTING

[eXe]

Same here.. we have 2 Bush votes here, and 4 cats :)

As much as I I love dogs, cant have them, allergic to them badly. For some odd reason cats dont bother my allergies

[LibertyGirl77]

I disagree totally. I have considered writing an article taking exactly the opposite approach, actually.

Cats are the emotionally secure, thinking person's pet. Therefore, they make good pets for Republicans.

[GaretGarrett]

Conservative credentials: put an AuH2O sticker on my car & started collecting Millions For Goldwater after a friend gave me a copy of The People's Pottage in 1962, have 5 rocksolid Christian conservative kids w/spouses of the same persuasion (3 of them Hillsdale College grads & now Christian private school teachers who assign Bastiat, von Mises, "Atlas Shrugged", etc., as required reading in Economics) & 17 Reagan Republican grandchildren (oldest of which is entering Hillsdale next week).

I'm for Dr.Pepper (not diet), full-caf Bull Run Roasters Costa Rican coffee/PG Tips teabags, margaritas w/salt, Pall Mall Lights (every joyous puff cries Yea to life), beloved red '96 Jeep Cherokee covered with flag Ws, Sweet Baby Ray's Hot n'Spicy (tomato-based) BarBQ sauce, iMac just updated to OS X.

Dogs owned: Collie, Corgi-Shepherd mix, Mini Schnauzers (4), Airedale, Standard Poodles (2), Airedale: my buddies, bedwarmers, DEW alarm systems, bodyguards, exercise machines (making me get out & walk every day when I wouldn't otherwise). Cats: 3 long ago & never again for reasons too painful to dwell on, though one of my daughters has a cat that's pretty hilarious to watch (at HER house).

"Mendacious nonsense" (doesn't that verge on rhetorical overkill, Smonk?) or not, this was more fun than the well-deserved ordeals of NJ. Great posts (w/a few "catty" exceptions:o) & GREAT pictures (even the cats).

(ladyjag, that wasn't my cat (I microwaved all mine), but it sure looks like one of the four "independent/self-sufficient" ones I've had to scrape off the street in front of my houses through the years before the children saw them & started crying.)

[Kackikat]

Well our cat Louie was seen chasing the neighbors dalmation through the yard, when the dog thought he would help himself to the rabbit Louie had caught......not all cats are afraid of dogs.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the chuckle!

[GaretGarrett]

The NYT Sunday mag had a feature article a few years ago titled "Your Pets & Your Allergies". They said the only hypoallergenic pet they knew of was a Miniature Schnauzer--that they'd never heard of any allergic reaction to them. Beautiful, spunky, personable, non-roaming, healthy, little dogs, too, & incomparable watch dogs. I had two of them, sisters, for almost 17 years.

[GaretGarrett]

[To: GaretGarrett; js1138
how about HUGE and SERIOUS ?? :)

261 posted on 08/15/2004 2:02:17 PM PDT by CaraM ]


CaraM, what on earth are you talking about?

[GaretGarrett]

A good friend has a MaltiPoo I keep for her now & then. "Smart & independent" is putting it mildly. I don't think you can cross a poodle w/anything & not get a great dog. I've known two Schnauzer/Poodle mixes ("Schnoodles") that were incredibly intelligent, dignified, beautiful dogs, & the "Doodle Dogs" (Poodle/Lab & Poodle/Golden) are becoming legends in a very short time. Check them on Google.

[Salamander]

Sighthounds rule!.....:))

[and yes, my dogs could catch their own chow, if I let'em]...;)

[fawn796]

Exactly.

[fawn796]

"...Three cats, one German Shepherd Dog, and two Bush votes at this household..."

Same here - plus 2 horses!

[GraceCoolidge]

My husband had two miniature schnauzers but had to get rid of them due to his allergies. So perhaps he is the rare exception... or maybe the NYT got it wrong (hard to imagine, isn't it!). We now have two boxers that cause him similar problems but the design of our house allows us to control his exposure. I had thought I'd read that curly haired dogs (such as standard poodles) were good choices for those with allergies.

[mewzilla]

The cat people, I have decided, will go overwhelmingly for Kerry..

HA! I love my cat. I kiss my cat on the muzzle. I'm voting for 43. Again.

[GaretGarrett]

I'm trying to recall now just why it was I trusted anything the NYT says.

I remember wondering at the time about this. You might know that Schnauzers are double-coated, at least when they're born. You must pluck out the soft undercoat if you want the wiry topcoat to prevail (Show Schnauzers must have the wiry coat.) If you clip the puppy the topcoat will eventually disappear & the undercoat will become the top coat. (This is the case w/most purely-pet Schnauzers.)

Maybe just one of the coats is hypo-allergenic. Do you know which kind your husbands' dogs had?

I too would guess that poodle-type coats (non-oily, non-shedding) would be a better bet than the Schnauzers'. I think I'll go Googling for better info than NYT's.