Cats and Dogs Living Together

Everyone knows dogs and cats have an adversarial relationship, as if they've been bred to oppose each other in some grand scheme to create domestic balance. When talking about dogs or cats we often frame them each against a backdrop of the other, like Red and Blue states whose stark common borders are defined so clearly by the very character of their intense contrast with each other.

It's not really true, however, that canine and feline are natural born enemies, they just get their signals crossed. When a cat is feeling friendly she holds her tail high, almost vertical. To a dog, a high tail signals aggressive dominance. A dog lowers his ears when he's frightened or submissive but cats lower their ears when angered. When hunting, a cat holds her tail low which is doggy language for "submissive". Imagine the poor friendly dog's surprise when he gets a nose full of claws... he learns quickly to mistrust those moody and unpredictable cats!

Forced to live together, a dog can learn to read his feline companion's body language, allowing the two to cohabitate in relative peace despite the communicative disconnect that underlies their relationship. I witnessed this recently as our cat (Jingle) and our dog (Sally) peacefully shared a small square of sunshine on the kitchen floor. Theirs is a friendship born of claws and fury, but with time they are growing to understand each other.

A couple days ago I was sharing this information (gleaned from an NPR Podcast) with my wife of 15 years, Cristy, and we both had a good chuckle as we related it to our own experience as pet owners. Then Cristy broke with a contemplative pause and after a moment she said, "Yeah, I'm a cat".

Just like you would expect from any typical dog... I have no idea how I should interpret that.