Tags
cats, challenge, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2002, dogs, musings
Dogs or cats?
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’d know the answer to this one without my having to shout it from the rooftops. Who here doesn’t know—or at least hasn’t heard of—my darling Luci the Labrador? Before Luci, there was Goofy. Decades before Goofy came Simi and Chinchu, and even before them, brief periods with Danny and Tiger.
Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! DOGS! DOGS! DOGS!
There. I’ve said it, in case anyone was still in any doubt.
Do you know how I spend a major part of my free time? Watching dog videos. I really can’t stop once I begin watching those adorable canines and their antics. There’s nothing quite like a dog to put a smile on my face.
Not that I need dogs to smile, of course. I am a naturally cheerful person who usually has a ready smile on her face, despite knowing life to be what it is.
Shitty as heck.
But I digress.
So where were we? Ah yes. Watching dog videos. Me, not you. I was telling you about it.
I have my favourites that I watch over and over again. Sterling and Colin, the Golden Retrievers from Canada. Tucker and Todd (again Goldens!), the father-and-son duo from somewhere in the US. Meeka the Husky (US again), the Half-Husky Bros, and many more.
I also follow The Dogist on both Instagram and Facebook. He’s the guy who wanders around photographing random dogs he meets on the streets, then shares their backstories and unique traits through conversations with their pet parents.
But… (There it is, the but butting in!)
I’m afraid I also love cats.
I’ve rescued quite a few in my lifetime. Cats have been a part of my life since childhood. I’ve written extensively about the feline characters who’ve wandered through it—Poocha Baa, Pippy and her kittens, Nandini and her kittens, Chippy, Goldie, Pepper, Nibbles… the list is long.
At present, there’s a cat that has adopted our apartment block as her own. She can almost always be found just outside the lobby entrance, quietly keeping an eye on the comings and goings of residents and their guests. I call her Blackie on account of her being entirely black.
How original, right?
More about her later.
Come to think of it, I’ve probably had more cats than dogs. (Yes, yes, I know they say it’s the cats who own you, not the other way around!)
I’ve had wonderful relationships with them too.
And yet, if you asked me to choose…
Dogs.
Any day.
© Shail Mohan 2025
Shail's Nest 
You like cats? That’s it – we’re finished. I’m blocking you.
Naaah.
I think I know what you mean. We’re dog lovers through and through, but cats can be incredible companions too and I’ve wept more tears over the death of cats than I care to recall. But then I’ve got tearful over the death of hamsters and even – I kid you not – the death of fish in the fish tank (except for the one that ate the others and then – as I like to recall it – choked on a fishbone. That bugger deserved it).
I too follow loads of doggie pages (largely the sole reason for having Instagram at all) but don’t tend to do cats other than as and when they come across my feed – which is often…along with bears, deer, rabbits, birds and politicians…
You are a softie, Ken. Having said that, I myself cried buckets for the pets I have lost, and cry for those that die in movies. I have friends who refuse to watch/read Marley. But I did and suffered for it.
Instagram for the dogs, yes! 🙂
Ah yes, I am Legend, similarly. You can’t get that one out of your head…
We too are dog people and speak fluent Doganese. We are retired now though and due to our lifestyle of frequent travel we no longer have pets. We used to have both dogs and cats at the same time. In spite of not having our own the neighbourhood cats cottoned on to the fact that we speak Catanese too and no less than four of them visit regularly so we get our pet-fix from them!
I relate to what you are saying. Travel becomes a problem when you have pets.