I do think it matters if my vet is a cat or dog person. Having taken my animals to vets that obviously prefer one over the other, it doesn't foster confidence that the knowledge level is the same for the opposite animal. It also reads in the handling of the animal and personal experience with any possible behavior issues.
I love my dogs, but I am a cat person.

If my vet treated my cats as though they were small dogs because s/he was not a cat person, then yes, it would matter very much to me. If, however, they recognized that cats are their own species and respected the fact that treating them like dogs is more stressful on both the cat and the handlers as well as medically inappropriate, I wouldn't care which they personally prefer! I myself like them about equally, which is apparently not an acceptable option at all! :)

Because I have two greyhounds, I need a greyhound knowledgeable vet, so yes, I do care if my vet is a dog or cat person.

Do I care that he sees cats? Of course, not.

HHHHmmmm. You've probably opened the floodgates with this one, Dr Khuly!

I love all critters, I just happen to greatly prefer cats.

On a personal level, my vet is a dog person. However, he's an incredible cat vet, too, and never mistakes a cat for a small dog.

When it comes to my circle of friends, I don't think there's a single one that isn't a critter lover of some kind. If there's ever someone in my home and my critters take a dislike to them, I trust their judgement.

Strangely, my cats adore all the technicians from my heating and cooling company. Even more oddly, they REALLY adore plumbers. It's always fun to ask questions about their pets and find that they happily whip out pictures of their fur families.

I am a cat person. I am also a dog person, although to a slightly lesser extent as I do not have a dog at the moment due to having a cat that hates dogs. I grew up with both dogs and cats in our house and at my grandparents and appreciate the unique qualities of both species...but...I have to say I love the fact that cats do not drool or smell or bark or need to be walked and can actually SHARE the sofa with you. But...I do not have a cat that loves a car ride or snow. As to my vet being a cat or dog person...I honestly do not know which they are, as they have always been great with my kitties and also seem really good with the dogs they see too, and I have never asked. I have been very happy with the care and concern and affection shown over the last twenty odd years at the practice.

I was a die-hard cat person until the third year of vet school. We'd had some awesome cats when I was growing up and some rather un-awesome dogs. (Totally my family's fault for not doing their research first - we were not really suited as a dog family let alone the types we got!) Just before vet school, though, I took on and bottle-fed a 3-week-old orphan kitten, without knowing the perils of orphanhood, and she also turned out to have hyperesthesia. Not affectionate at all, just a constant string of growls and random violence (gabapentin has toned this down a lot). My husband refers to her as malicious furniture. I'd still be devastated if anything happened to her, but let's just say she was not giving me what I needed from a pet.

About the same time I was coming to grips with this, I started clinics and was interacting with actual well-behaved, well-groomed dogs, and I started to re-think my position. I went dog-crazy and proceeded to spend 2 years researching and planning for my first dog. He is awesome. I have gladly relinquished my position as a cat person to bask in canine glory. I'm not totally turned off from cats - we fostered some kittens and the pup looooved them so when we move we are planning on getting a pair of kittens to be "Puzzle's" but what I'm really anticipating is the addition of a second dog to our family. Cat person no more.

Wikith, I just wanted to thank you for this part of your comment: "I took on and bottle-fed a 3-week-old orphan kitten, without knowing the perils of orphanhood, and she also turned out to have hyperesthesia."

The part about taking on a bottle-fed, 3-week-old kitten caught my eye since I did the same. And mine also has aggressive behavior problems (although not quite as extreme as yours sounds). I never heard the term hyperesthesia before, so I hit the intertubes to find out what it meant. I'm now convinced that my now 3-year-old, who has suffered from what I call the Itchy Twitchies all her life and has earned, among many nicknames, Little Miss Don't-Touch-Me, has Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome. I'm excited that her vet and I might be able to give her some relief. Thank you!

P.S. Despite my experience, I'm still totally a cat person. Nothing against dogs; they're just fine ... in other peoples' homes. ;-)

My Pet Doctor is a cat person, our Pet Kids, (Dogs) love him. We think the world of Him. Our Fellissa lived 21 years. Yes, she was a cat to some, but to us, she was our joy, We miss her. But do not miss the litter box. I said No more Cats After you have had the best....Than my Grand-cat Charley came into our lives he is, so much like Fellissa. ..........We want to wish Every-one a Blessed and Safe Holliday....(PS)..... Please help Mom or Grand-Mom with the dishs......LOL

Though I have been blessed with both species in my life, my heart belongs to cats. I currently share my home and yard with 14 rescue kitties and I wouldn't trade one of them for a dog. I would rather scoop litter boxes once a day than having to take a dog out over and over all day and night. Cats are quieter, bath themselves, and don't demand constant attention. I can go away for a few days and my kitties do quite well without me. Dogs are like young children that never grow up. I've seen vets in the past I could tell were dog people. I never went back again.

I am most definitely a dog person and, sorry, cat people, but I can't find one good thing about cats other than they are cute as kittens. I'm also furious about these cat people that will open their doors to let their cats roam the streets and then cry about it when they find their cat dead on the road or it comes home poisoned or beat up by another cat. I think there should be laws with cats the same as they are with dogs...they should have to be licensed and have a leash law. There wouldn't be so many strays and so many litters of unwanted kittens listed in papers all around the country. I don't mean to come off mean to you cat people, because I know there are many that don't allow their cats outside and do take great care of them. Kudos to you who do!
My vet is a cat person but is also a rescuer of Greyhounds and I wouldn't want any other vet than her to take care of my 9 dogs.

I cannot keep 14 cats inside my home. I work with a rescue group (cats and dogs) and some of the cats I've taken in have lived their entire lives outdoors and will not come inside. Any that do not want to go outside, I let stay inside. Every cat is spayed/neutered and current on vaccinations. I have had 2 cats attacked by dogs and as my vet suggested from now on I will kill any loose dog that comes in my yard (my legal right). I love dogs but will not let them cost me any more money.

I'm sorry, but having that many cats is still no excuse. If they don't want to come in then they should be confined in a garage, a barn, anywhere that they can be confined and not roaming the streets. Kudos to you for having them all spayed and neutered but to me they're still a nuisance. They dig in my mulch and leave that stink to drift in my windows and if it were legal, I'd shoot every one of them that is on my property. Do you treat them all for fleas? That's another pet peeve of mine...they are such flea bags and in all my years of having dogs, I have never had fleas until the strays started sleeping on my porch one year. You can best believe I put an end to that! Sorry, just not a cat lover at all!

To say there are stray cats and not stray dogs around in any area is almost comical. I did a quick search on petfinder.com for my area and found 176,604 dogs and 166,434 cats up for adoption, mostly from shelters that found them as strays.

Stray dogs can be just as much of a “nuisance” as stray cats, and probably much more dangerous to humans. And get this, dogs have fleas, too.

For both of you to post you would kill any dog/cat that comes on your property is evil. I hope you’re at least a good aim so you don’t kill your neighbor’s kid while you’re at it.

But Happy Thanksgiving anyway. I am thankful you're not my neighbors.

I'm both at the moment. Yes, you can be. At different times in your life you may be more one than the other. As a child, I was a dog person. Why? Because I was a very active child, loved being outdoors, and my dog was always with me, no matter what I did or where I went. Indoors or out, the dogs in my childhood where the center of my life.

Then I went to college. I couldn't have a dog, as I lived in an apartment. But, being someone who doesn't relish living alone, a friend gave me a kitten from a litter she had raised since a baby (the mother had died). I instantly fell in love and for years, I was a die-hard cat person...until I became engaged. By then I'd lost my cat (to a weirdo who killed her!). I was living in a house once more, so could have a dog. My fiance and I adopted a whippet mix puppy and I was back to being a dog person, complete with frisbee-throwing. He was our first child.

When we married and our own children began to arrive, I longed for the serenity of a cat to spend quiet times with, to sit with me while I read and offer the kids a less boisterous companion. Suddenly, I was BOTH--cat and dog person.

Since then I've gone back and forth over the years, depending on our lives, becoming either a cat or dog person, or both.

It serves no purpose to be snobby about whether a person is a cat person, a dog person, or both. What matters is that they be a responsible pet parent and that they love either/both types of pets. The more the merrier, I always say! :)

We have both and I joke that having dogs has made me a cat person. Our three cats live strictly indoors, as any "house pet" should be and each has a distinct personality; sweet and reserved, adventurous but loving and a total cuddler. Our dogs are awesome too, but cats are so low maintenance and don't have the more disgusting habits of the canines; poop eating, etc.

I think that being predominately a dog or cat person depends a lot on what you personally like to do. I love the outdoors, camping, kayaking, swimming, fishing, hiking, etc. While you COULD possibly take a cat on some of those things, for the most part they do not tend to lend themselves very well to these type of activities. Although we did have a cat that liked to walk down to the creek with us when my boys were little. We found that out the hard way one real hot summer day. We were almost there (a mile walk one way) and heard pitiful meowing and looked back to find this cat almost in heat stroke. Didn't know she had followed us and the dogs. We carried her the rest of the way and submersed her in the creek (she didn't care at that point). She recovered and we carried her back home...and made sure she was inside whenever we went thereafter. But she was the only household cat and she and the dogs got along and I guess she wanted to do what they did.
I really liked that cat and a few others we have had but dogs just fit us much better.

So I think a lot depends on your lifestyle. I don't know why we have to get all upset about whether a person likes dogs or cats best but we do tend to do that, like it somehow means one is better than the other when all they are is DIFFERENT from the other. Humans are really, really strange animals sometimes fretting over inconsequential stuff.

Wishing everybody (and their cats, dogs, goats, chickens, horses, birds, cows, iguanas, snakes and other beloved pets a very thankful and happy Thanksgiving!

I used to consider myself primarily a "dog person" until I started working with shelter cats. Now I enjoy both for their differences and similarities. I admit I'm more drawn to the cats with dog-like qualities (friendly, affectionate, outgoing) than the independent or shy ones. But they all deserve good homes with caring companions.

Dogs are OK but I am a cat person all the way :)

I am most definitely a dog person. While I love all dogs, I am a Bichon Freak!!! I have rescued 4 of them and they are wonderful pets! I honestly never wondered if my Vet is a dog or cat person. He takes excellent care of my four, and while I am in the exam room he is a dog person and that's all that matters to me.

Growing up, I felt I liked both cats and dogs equally, but the older I've become, the more I like dogs and the less I like cats. It has to do with their differences -- just about everything that makes me appreciate dogs isn't found in cats. I think the relationship that dogs have with humans is unique in the animal kingdom.

I think the vet aspect only matters if they're open about it. A vet who is strongly dog leaning is not going to be liked by a temperamental cat and vice versa.

My own vet handles all my animals the same, with professional detachment. Some people call this poor bedside manner, but he's calm, has smooth movements, talks in a very calming monotone voice during his entire time in the exam room, smile on his face, and all my pets respond positively to this.

I grew up a dog and cat person, and still am. But I've found the cats are loyal/dogs go with anyone stereotype to be backwards in my house. I used to work in a pet supply store for five years. People used to joke all the time that they loved my dogs so much (they used to come to work with me every day) that they wanted to take them home. I'd tell them to go ahead if they could get them to leave. No one ever one the bet. The only way they'll go out of my sight is if I ask them to stay and walk away - and unless I hand the leash to someone and ask the dog to go, they won't leave.

The cats, on the other hand, are a different story. I don't know how many times I've had to pull Pey'j out of stranger's purses, trying to hitch a ride home. They're the first to greet people, they're all over them on the sofa...

To top it off, I've been really ill lately. All three dogs are upstairs with me all day. Have been since May. The cats, who used to hang out in the hallway, have taken to snuggling on a dog bed downstairs, they don't even enter my bedroom. They could care less whether I was here or not - my husband feeds them. My husband feeds the dogs too, and yet here they are. When my husband gets home, the dogs go down to visit him, but as soon as he gets boring, they come up here to lay on my bed and be with me.

And these aren't a long bonded pair of cats. Jasper was almost 10 when we got Pey'j, they've been together for three years. But they are King and Queen, and as long as the food is delivered on time, the cat litter kitty pools are cleaned weekly, the toys are freshened and the cat trees are cleaned off when they need it, what use do they have for us?

Don't get me wrong, we adore them both and will protect them with our lives. They get the best of the best and are treated just as well as the dogs are. Jasper was even trained for commercials before Pey'j came along. But we've decided that these two will be our last.

babysweet, sorry to hear you've been really ill. Hoping things turn around for you quickly.

Thanks, RealityCheck. :O) Never too sick to lay down a type on the laptop though, are we. ;O)

Keeps me sane. (insert chuckle here)

I grew up with both dogs and cats and in my childhood I would have called myself a cat person. The dog was outdoor only, and the cats lived inside. As an adult I got an indoor dog, and got more closely bonded with her. But I still wanted a cat, so although my husband was not into cats, we adopted one from the shelter where I volunteer (with the cats). He is a good-natured social guy, while our dog is somewhat neurotic, so to my husband's surprise, he and the cat have become very close. The dog's constant need for attention feeds my nurturing side, but I can see that later I may go back to the independence and cuddability of cats. Interestingly, although all three of my siblings have cats, I'm the only one with a dog (although I think the preferences of the spouses has a lot to do with it)

I think to love any animal is divine, and not to be criticized for any reason. A pet is cherished, simply.


So many factors: life styles, personality, animal-bonds, all come into play and should not enter into a discussion of what is the better or the best.

People love their pets, simple as that.

I'm a cat vet for a simple reason. I think I'm borderline autistic (nobody every bothered to diagnose me) and therefore my little brain short-circuits from all the sensory input that dogs can heap on you all at once :-) I love wolf-cross dogs for the same reason - those I've met pretty much chill and do their own thing, which works very well for me.

I would never claim that a cat is more intelligent than a dog. That's just perpetuating a stereotype and obscuring the issue. They are each good at what they need to do, so each is equally intelligent but in their own way.

I love them equally, and have always had both in my home. It is like comparing apples to oranges, IMO. They both have qualities that make them different from each other, and desirable to me.
Now, let me throw into the mix that I have become more of a bird person! I also have parrots, and feel like they are like a perfect mix of the cat and dog qualities that I love. ;)

I must admit that the balance has shifted in my house. If you had met me 5-6 yrs ago you would have sworn I was a cat person all the way... Enter my first puppy and the rest is history. Right now my house is missing the feline touch, but I promise you that won't be for long.

As for my vet...he could go either way. He has both, but I can see him leaning a little more towards the dogs. Honestly, it doesn't really matter to me.

My first love was a dog. After she died, I fell in love with my first cat and became a cat person for years. Then I got my own dog thTnd fell in love with her! Now I have two cats and two dogs and I love them all in their own very different ways! All four have thingS that I love about them and things that really annoy me! I couldn't pick one over the other now. I guess that makes me a mutt just like all of them!

HEY SPAMMER (aka winter boots)

Copying and pasting a portion of another's post and tacking on your spam isn't appreciated. No, we don't want your handbags or shoes.

Please go away.

Just so that no one thinks our Old Broad was talking silliness, the spammer she is referring to has been deleted and blocked. Thanks for watching our back, Old Broad!

For a long time I thought of myself strictly as a "cat person."

Now, with 2 dogs I dearly love, and a very sweet cat, I have to say each one has a personality strictly its own, and I love (or don't love) animals based on their individual characteristics.

My first 2 cats were polar opposites. One was an affectionate, outgoing, easygoing bucket of love. The other was aloof, frightened, reclusive and unreachable. We tried everything we could think of to earn her trust and affection, to no avail.

They lived in the same house, had the same freedoms, access to the same treatment, but two totally different creatures, with only a species in common.

We've had 3 dogs, with very different personalities. We've loved them all. Different from the cats, certainly. But I enjoy that they want to be with me all the time.

Actually, that first cat was a lot like my dogs.

I'll do nearly anything for my pets' happiness and well-being, because the love they give is such a gift. I don't care whether it comes in a cat shaped package or a dog shaped package. I guess I would say the dogs are a bit more fun, and lead to more social interaction, but that first cat holds a dear and special place in my heart. I wept my heart out when he passed away (cancer)and I tell stories about him often. I have stacks of photos of him from his cute and clever poses. If I am ever lucky enough to find another cat like him, I will wonder what I did to be so blessed.

But I'm sitting here on the couch with my two dogs, and feeling pretty blessed as it is. So am I a cat person or a dog person?

Yes.