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globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

Yes, different cats have different personalities and different levels of intelligence.

Also, aside from indoor our outdoor-oriented, some are both: they come and go like people. The last two cats I've had love to go out but also love to come back in for affection (not just food and shelter).

The following story will probably have everyone calling me the "Cat Man" but I would appreciate it if people would refrain from that. Anyway, when I was single in college I got a beautiful black kitten in 1978. After graduation in 1980 he went with me to Connecticut, then New Jersey (near Sopranos country), then Illinois for graduate school, then Texas for a year as foreign-student adviser at UT Arlington (me, not my cat--he just tagged along), then Virginia, then back to Illinois for another MA (D'oh!!)...then in 1986 to Malaysia for 18 months, then Japan..he finally died in Japan at 13 yrs of age, in 1991. He held up pretty well and I never had any problems carrying him all over the world, although it was clearly stressful for him. Sometimes I gave him prescribed sedatives for some journeys. Obviously I loved that cat, and he provided solace on many a bad day...and on good days too.

Arab friends of my wife's gave us a half-Persian, half short-hair American, beige-colored cat in Abu Dhabi in 2003 and now he happily chases the gekkos and birds in the suburban back yards of Houston at my wife's house. This 'fluffy guy is so smart, and he actually saved me Dh. 100 one time because we had a bad habit of locking ourselves out of our apartment, the door of which locked when you closed it, like a hotel door. A couple of times we had to pay Dh 100 for the guys to physically break the door and repair it again. But once we had the cat, who loves to jump up on door handles and pull them down so he can go out and explore, we knew he'd open the door for us by the time we got back. Indeed, upon return from our errands, the door was open and our cat was back inside waiting for us. That definitely earned him a cat visa...but we would have brought him back with us anyway.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

To the boys on the previous page... I have found that many insecure men have apparently decided that liking a cat somehow makes their masculinity suspect. They are the ones that liked to torment small animals as children (recall the dog hanging in the newspaper article?), activities that apparently gave them a sense of power. Most of them grow up eventually. Often the final step is when their wife comes home one day and drops this fluffy little kitten in their lap. Amazing how quickly they get captured by it... turns out that they are human after all.

Just like every dog has a different personality, so does every cat... as any person who has ever owned one of either knows. Those of you who have never had one and claim otherwise are just showing your ignorance.

VS

kiefer · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 268

Well this post will surely get the topic locked.

You would think that cat ownership and machismo would not be in conflict. If one ascribed an animal avatar to John Wayne, which would it be? The silent, independent, stealthy cool headed killer or the drooling, needy, insecure, sycophant who doesn't know enough not to crap where he eats, and who will in fact, eat crap straight from the litter box of a more highly evolved mammal.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

See... I said that cats have different personalities. I have known cats and people at both ends of that scale too. Cool

VS

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

Cats are far cleaner than dogs. They cover up their poo, and they get away from it as quickly as possible. They don't smell bad, they don't stink up the house, they don't cover the yard with poo, they don't bark, and they don't maul innocent people. They do provide great companionship and the reason they were domesticated in the first place is because they earned their keep by keeping homes relatively rodent-free.

007 · Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 7:12 pm Post subject:

Jreng · Joined: 13 Feb 2005 Posts: 37 Location: uae

Come on GUYS ! Fighting over the Cats. Grow up

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

Don't pay any attention to 007. He's a troll and a moron.

007 · Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 6:33 pm Post subject:

Henry_Cowell · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 3352 Location: Berkeley

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

I am a Master of Moroseness. That was a two-year program at PU in Saudi.