Dogs and cats

There is an affinity between man and dogs. Dogs are pack animals. So are men. Dogs left their pack to follow men. The Bible says that woman should leave her home and cleave to her man. So we are creatures of the pack as well. To find the key to the affinity between dog and man consider the moon. For all time when the moon grows to its full size and comes close to our home, we seem to have a response much like the swelling of the tides. Our hearts swell to match the tide and we yearn for things, for someone, someone whose heart is swelling in concert with the selfsame tides. And the rising of the moon.

And look at the dogs. The moon rises and the hound dogs bay, for what? Who knows, except they seem to respond to the moon, in their own way, just as we do. Is it the affinity we share? Is it something we hold in common? Perhaps. Perhaps when the moon rises and the music swells within us, we both yearn for that creature in common. The one person whose heart is swelling in concert with our own.

And then there are cats. With cats, we seek to bend their wills to ours. We see something soft and nice to hold. Something which brings us pleasure. But the claws await us. We try so hard to bend them to our wills. And yet, a cat is it's own creature. If a cat bends its will to ours, it is because they wish to, not because they feel compelled to be with us, but because they find something they want in us. Food. Comfort. Shelter. But something they want.

And that is what cats give to us. A vision of something pleasant and soft, perhaps even helpful. But something we cannot control, with its own will. And so cats are a reminder that we cannot control our world, just bits of it. And certainly not cats, even the cats in our own houses.