DOGS VS. CATS
FriendlyRating: All ages and species.
Safety Rating: Totally safe.
Quality Rating: Fun, informative, but competitively pointless.
Special airing tonight on Animal Planet at 8 p.m. Please note, no pictures were available from the network and I thought posting pictures of my crew would be too precious.
The good news about the special is that it’s a good way to learn about cats and dogs and their respective virtues. Plus, it presents a lot of good facts about each critter. But a competition?
Okay, I get that this all to be taken as tongue in cheek. And I get that people do have strong opinions regarding their preferences. But setting folks up to fight like, well, cats and dogs, is a bit ridiculous. Or maybe I’m just annoyed because I love both dogs and cats (have two of each at the old homestead, all of whom are reasonably spoiled), and while they are all different, each critter has his or her own virtues and bring a great deal of joy to mine and my husband’s lives. In a world that is so polarized on so many issues, can’t we find some room to appreciate differences instead of facing off to determine who or what is better?
And while the information is fun, as are some of the competitions, you could tell it was all rigged to come out even until the bitter end. like the loyalty competition. A cat and a dog are each placed equidistant between their owner and a platter of a favorite treat, tuna for the cat and bacon for the dog. Trust me, my cat Dorothy Parker would drop me in favor of some tuna in a heartbeat because she is a tuna junkie. She’d be bathing in that platter. On the other hand, my dog Moses would turn up his nose at bacon if it meant I’d be playing with him. Treat training him was a total loss because he’d rather run than eat. Does that mean either are more or less loyal to me? Horse manure.
You may want to talk to your kids about this. Ask them if they really think cats or dogs are better than the other and maybe see if there’s some room for coming together and appreciating what is wonderful about each.
