Word: dogs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Cats, love 'em or hate 'em, are a hot number. Plain or fancy, pampered or ignored, barn mousers or apartment pets, they have captured the American imagination. They are becoming a national mania. In fact, cats are even gaining on dogs. Thirty-four million cats-often in multiples-inhabit 24% of America's households, an increase of 55% in the past decade. The dog population, meanwhile, has stabilized in recent years at some 48 million. In Washington, D.C., and New York, feline adoptions from animal shelters have zoomed 30% in the past three or four years. Cats...
...almost unbudgeable popular belief-and a false one-that cats and dogs have an instinctive rivalry. Animal owners, however, are often more partisan than their pets. "I'm not a cat person, I'm a dog person," is a frequently expressed predilection. The cat is sly and fickle, say canine lovers. It is cruel, indifferent and, well, catty. Such deprecations may mask a deeper dislike...
Votaries of the cat take a different view. From Cleopatra to Colette they have praised Felis domestica in stories, songs and poems for grace, independence, intelligence, perseverance and fastidious ways. Unlike the dog or man, cats do not form Soviets or pyramid clubs to achieve dubious pack goals. While they may pick a top cat, felines do not seem to require rigid hierarchies when a number of them live together. If human, cats might play solitaire, but they would never sit around with the gang and a few six-packs watching Monday Night Football. Their aloof singularity lies...
...ordinary mousers can now receive thoroughly researched and specialized medical care. Today's veterinarian handles that task with considerable sophistication and science. A decade ago most small-animal vets devoted only 20% of their practices to felines. So little research had been done in cat diseases that dog cures were often simply transferred to cats, sometimes to no effect. Currently, 50% of America's small-animal practice is devoted to cats. The Cornell University Feline Research Center closely examines cat problems such as heart disease, unknown a decade ago, and drug-resistant respiratory viruses. Feline leukemia, a white...
...skin of the cat heals so fast that one common complaint is abscess: the skin is repaired before the infection beneath has cleared up. "Cats make animal surgeons look good," says Sullivan. One other advantage in treating felines: cat owners, say some vets, pay their bills more readily than dog owners...