Positive thinking!

As an early Valentine’s Day gift for each other this year my husband and I got a dog. We both grew up with dogs so naturally we feel that a house is not a home without a dog. It has not even been two weeks since we have had Tabitha, but all I have been doing during this time is hoping she will eventually stop fixating on Bruno, our cat. So since that’s all I can focus on right now, simply because I’m constantly having to run interference between the two, I figured that would make a good subject.

Most dogs chase cats. Most dogs will chase anything furry that is running away from them. And most cats aren’t social creatures. They look out for themselves even if that means getting stuck up a tree to avoid danger. Dogs have a natural instinct to wag their tail when they are happy; cats wag their tail when they are agitated. Dogs need your affection and love you unconditionally whereas cats tolerate your affection and make you work for their love. A good portion of the time, dogs and cats simply do not get along, they are too different. There is even a phrase for this well-known situation. It has been used for centuries, its origins dating to before Shakespeare’s time (Bruce), “fighting like cats and dogs”. If you have ever heard a dog growling and barking frantically at a cat and heard the cat hissing and growling back, this phrase becomes more than just a cliché.

So when a picture like this shows up in a chain email or new meme the instant reaction for most is “Awww!” But the picture is saying so much more than look at the cute dog and cat being friends. It is essentially trying to convince you that years of evolution of cats and dogs can be overcome. Anyone with pets wants them to get along, whether dogs, cats or both. But getting animals to like each other is very different than, say, trying to get along with your sister in law’s alcoholic husband. This instinctual dislike, between dogs and cats, essentially comes down to a lack of understanding. Wars have been fought on this premise, and one could argue that they still are. If dogs and cats can get along, why can’t we? But I digress.

While there is certainly an acute emotional response to a picture like this, it also contains a deeper message: anything is possible. Because of my current situation, this picture screams out to me, telling me to hope for peace, illustrating it is possible. It shows that a historically and even genetically ingrained co-evolutionary relationship, to fight like cats and dogs do, can be conquered. Maybe there can be peace between my dog and cat. And not just a tolerant peace with the two of them ignoring each other. It can be a friendship; a happy relationship where they become so inseparable they even stay together when they are sleeping. This picture is such a sweet representation, you can’t help but want to believe it.

Rationally, we know that cats and dogs cuddling is not the norm. But on the internet there is a ridiculously large number of these types of pictures out there. Pictures don’t become popular if they state something obvious. Cute pictures of animals cuddling are popular, funny pictures of cats chasing dogs are popular, but pictures of dogs chasing cats are kind of boring and mundane. If you do an image search on Google for “dog chase cat” a good portion of the images are cartoons and as you scroll down you come across more picture of dogs and cats cuddling than chasing. Maybe this is a good sign, the popularity of all these images of natural enemies coming to love each other. Maybe it shows our hope and desire for a more peaceful world. For me, I just hope my immediate world can one day become as sweet and peaceful as this image. Positive thinking!

Bruce, Elyse. "Fight like Cats and Dogs." Historically Speaking. Wordpress, 2 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. <http://idiomation.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/fight-like-cats-and-dogs/>.