I Don't Hate Cats, But I Adore Dogs!

Cats intrigue me, interest me, and I love seeing them doing their sleek and elegant thing, but I don't love them, and don't rate them as my favourite creatures. Dogs will always be my favourite, they were what I always wanted, when I was a child, and they're the creature I've shared my home with for almost all of my years since leaving my childhood home.

There have been a great many dogs in my life, from the little Terrier cross that briefly lived in the family home, when my brothers found him at the river, as adventurous boys, and brought him, hoping we could keep him, to the great big Bullmastiff my husband and I owned, and showed for a few years, after buying him as another dog to share our home, when we were breeding and showing Schnauzers.

I was there to assist with bringing many Schnauzer pups into the world, grateful the mother dogs usually did the job naturally, but always ready to step in and assist if and when such help was needed. An unmoving newborn pup is a terrible thing to be faced with, but it doesn't always mean that pup isn't alive, and a rub down, or some manipulation can sometimes get them moving, and when they gasp, and start breathing, oh what a fine thing that is!

I've lost count of how many Schnauzers my husband and I brought into the world, but it would have to have been well over sixty, I'd say. I've lost interest in the Schnauzer world, to a large extent, though I am actually wearing an old windcheater right now, that has the image of a Schnauzer on it, a Miniature Schnauzer, though, not the Standard Schnauzer we had. This windcheater is one of those 'wear only at home' items of clothing, useful to keep warm, but a little grotty now. We've been out of the 'Schnauzer' dog show world since our son was a child, and he's nearly 28 now ...

We no longer have any Schnauzers, and never will again, there is too much work involved in keeping them neat, and I neither, nor am good at such work, so it's smooth coated dogs for us these days. Our current dog is a lovely Pharaoh Hound, Missy, who is from the last litter of dogs we bred. Missy is thirteen and a half years old now, and very much slowed down, but she still enjoys her life.

One of Missy's main things to do, to find joy in her life, is to ward off any cats that venture onto our property, and although Missy can't reach the cats because of our fencing, it doesn't stop her from yelling at them, loudly! She did get one of these pesky cats once, and I think that cat is the one that limps a little, that I see sometimes, walking along our front veranda, the cheeky creature.

When I was a child, then teenager, it was always dogs I was drawn to. My best friend back then, Wendy, had a dog, and we loved to walk her dog, Harvey, and her neighbours dogs too, along the main road, after school. We felt invincible, walking the busy streets, but of course, if anything had ever gone wrong, a few dogs weren't going to save us. They may have been more useful than a cat ever would be though!

I loved the cat my husband had, a sleek and beautiful black cat named Emma. And though I lived with Emma for a few years, I never gained any insight into the mind of a cat, while feel I have a keen understanding of what dogs are thinking about. As I wrote, cats intrigue me, and I think they are beautiful creatures to look at, but give me a cuddly dog anytime, as a pet!

The cat we had when I was a child, Sox, was not a cuddly cat, and I've just remembered, a second ago, that neighbours' cat I tried to hug once, when I was about six or seven, that scratched me on the face ... maybe that soured my mind against the cat as a potential playmate, at an early age, who can tell? But dogs are more than enough for me, you can pat them, train them, walk with them, and admire them for many reasons. Cats aren't so good for taking for a walk, although I have seen people with a cat on a lead. It's a rare thing though.

I'm planning on writing a book perhaps next year, with a cat as one of the main characters, a ginger cat named McTavish. I've written three books already in this book series, and the fourth book will be written with a friend of mine, who will be writing the part of the cat. It's a project we've spoken about for well over a year, but this Covid thing has slowed that project, to some extent. Next year though, keep an eye out for Buster the Dog, and McTavish the Cat, who will be leaping out of the pages of my next illustrated book!

And McTavish the Cat is a girl cat, which I've just discovered is a rare thing, only twenty per cent of ginger cats are female. A fun fact for you there!

A