When I was a boy, we had a dog named Zola*. Almost everybody I knew, that had a pet, had a dog. Dogs were the heroes in movies like Old Yeller. Lassie, and Rin Tin Tin. The only people that had cats were villains and old ladies. Cats were bad – well, not exactly bad, more couldn't help it evil. Think Silvester.
Now everybody I know who has a pet, has a cat. Even people who have dogs, have cats**.
When I was that same boy, there were no longer wolves in the Bay Area and coyotes had yet to move in. There were no cougars or mountain lions, either. But, while the wolves seem to be really gone, the cougars are moving back in. And they are being embraced. The cover of our local park district magazine sports a mountain lion on the cover and an article inside promotes their virtues. So, it seems, both General U. S. Grant and mountain lions are making a comeback. Maybe health care will pass after all.
* for Émile Zola who accused the French Army of antisemitism and obstruction of justice when they convicted a Jewish artillery captain, Alfred Dryfus, of treason.
** except for the Obamas who only have a dog.
I’m very glad to see that you (and others) are emerging from the conformist haze of rote dogism. Having had cats all my life, I’ve been combating this pernicious mindset since I was a child in the 1950s. You mention Lassie, et al, but to me the egregious pro-mouse propaganda of Tom & Jerry (immensely popular here in Vietnam) and Tweety & Sylvester was far worse. How I longed as a kid to see that smarmy little canary crushed in feline jaws. I taught I taw a puddy tat indeed.
Oh, sure, Peter, now you say that you always liked cats. But I never heard you say that back when I didn’t know you in high school. But I do love that you commented.