Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats

By Bradley Trevor Greive and Rachael Hale

From a New York Times bestselling author, a humorous look at the advantages of being a dog parent, with photos from an award-winning photographer.

Some pairings are just meant to be: peanut butter and chocolate, yin and yang, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. So it was only a matter of time before the stars in the universe lined up and suggested the collaboration between New York Times bestselling author Bradley Trevor Greive and award-winning photographer Rachael Hale. Greive and Hale explain once and for all Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats. Now, before all you cat lovers find your fur standing on end, Greive is quick to stress that he is simply “prodog, not anticat. The purpose of this book is not to criticize cats or their owners, but to champion the many exceptional virtues unique to dogs.”

What are these unique attributes that make canine companions superior to their feline fiends? (Oops, we meant friends.) Consider the following:

* Dogs are social. Cats are sociopaths.

* Dogs match up to people. People must match up to cats.

* Dogs teach us patience. Cats test our patience.

* Dogs give and give. Cats are the gift that keeps on grifting.

The bottom line is this: Dogs want love. Cats want fish.

Although Greive admits that there is something to be said for “soft, warm, and sleepy” (a.k.a. cats) as captured in Hale's cuddly feline photographs, he concludes that dogs would be the only ones with character enough to admit this fact, thereby once again positioning themselves as the superior pet, confidant, admirer, and friend.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449433079

Bradley Trevor Greive

Bradley Trevor Greive became a publishing sensation after the release of The Blue Day Book in 2000. He has since sold more than 25 million books in over a hundred countries. In 2014 he was awarded the Order of Australia for his service to literature and wildlife conservation.

Book preview

0101

* * * * * *

Other Books by Bradley Trevor Greive

The Blue Day Book

Dear Mom

Looking for Mr. Right

The Meaning of Life

Priceless: The Vanishing Beauty of a Fragile Planet

The Incredible Truth About Mothers

Tomorrow

The Book for People Who Do Too Much

Friends to the End

The Blue Day Book for Kids

Dear Dad

The Simple Truth About Love

A Teaspoon of Courage

Friends to the End for Kids

Dieting Causes Brain Damage

Every Day Is Christmas

A Teaspoon of Courage for Kids

Thank You for Being You

I’m Sorry . . . My Bad

* * * * * *

Other Books by Rachael Hale

New-found-friends

101 Salivations

101 Cataclysms

It’s a Zoo Out There

Smitten

Snog

Dogs

Baby Love

My Life as a Baby

The Cat’s Pajamas

The Happy Baby Book

01

I am not a cat man, but a dog man,

and all felines can tell this at a glance—

a sharp, vindictive glance.

JAMES THURBER

contents

Overture

There Is a Dog for Everybody

Dogs Are Man’s Best Friend

Dogs Are Social; Cats Are Sociopaths

Cat People and Dog People: A Study in Contrasts

Cats Are Not without Their Charms

In Praise of Dogs

The Downside of Dogs

The Best and Worst Thing about Dogs

A Breed Apart

Epilogue

Notes

Acknowledgments

Overture

ALAS. WE LIVE IN THE AGE OF CATS.

I suggest you sit down and, if you’ve not already done so, cover your dog’s ears. Better yet, send him out of the room. The shock of what I must tell you may not be fatal, but it will certainly upset his internal plumbing to the degree that inner peace and sweet regularity will become but a happy memory.

There are now two hundred million more domestic cats in the world than there are dogs—twenty million more just in the USA, thirty million more in China, with several other nations close behind. Even in the few countries like Australia where dogs are in front by a nose or where pet cat numbers are falling, the feral cat population is climbing faster than a singed gibbon. The global number of stray and feral cats is now so impossibly large that it cannot even be guessed at—calculating π to one trillion decimal places has become a pitifully easy task by comparison, and only serious geeks with utterly crippled social skills need apply.¹

Cats are breeding machines, much like rabbits, mice, and Marlon Brando. In the time it takes you to read this page, thousands more kittens will be born. In just a few years, a single pair of cats and their subsequent offspring can serve up more than half a million sofa-scratchers. Even the most tenuous grasp of mathematics reveals that if sanity is not restored, cats will soon outnumber the soiled grains of sand they scatter imperiously from their pungent litter boxes. In short: It’s a deluge, and it’s only raining cats.

The cats’ unchecked hyperfertility that rivals the spread of a computer virus or a mutant strain of bathroom mold is clearly of great concern. Nevertheless, the weightiest responsibility sits awkwardly upon the narrow shoulders of cat owners themselves—a curious and fickle clutch who, though not necessarily archetypal losers per se, are likely to be divorced, widowed, or separated, according to a recent British survey.² Many own two, three, four, or more cats, and the legend of the mad cat lady, a fractured, sickly, embittered recluse whose domicile is decorated with fur balls and perfumed with herring vapors, really does have a basis in fact.³

CATS ARE FILLING EVERY CREVICE OF HUMANITY LIKE EXPLODING POPCORN.⁴

Meanwhile, lonely and irrational cat fanciers shovel kittens into their emotional bunkers with frenzied enthusiasm, and thus the popcorn growth cycle feeds upon itself until, gorged beyond restraint, the population approaches critical mass.⁵ One dark day we will wake to find a suffocating blanket of cats has covered the entire globe like a mewling funereal shroud.⁶

At the risk of inciting a Cat Fancier Jihad,⁷ I contend that the rise of the cat and the collapse of human civilization are inexorably linked. Consider, if you will, that in the United Kingdom cat numbers have doubled in just the last thirty years.⁸ During those three decades of exponential cat ownership, a period referred to as the fish-breath bubble,⁹ the world has changed a great deal. Some would say for the better. I demur.

ENTER THE CAT.

Reviews for Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats

[ccookie_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First Line:~ I suggest you sit down and if you've not already done so, cover your dog's ears ~Thus begins the effort of the author to convince us that dogs are better than cats. Bradley Trevor Greive is quick to stress that he is simply "prodog, not anticat. And he takes us on a humorous exploration of the qualities that make a dog a dog and a cat a cat. Serious cat lovers (an I am one of those) should not be offended as we know the truth. Cats are better than dogs. And dogs are better than cats. (I am also a dog lover.)This is a wonderful collaboration between New York Times best selling author Bradley Trevor Greive and award-winning photographer Rachael Hale. The photographs are what make the book. Enjoy! (4 stars)

[rockstarninja_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What would appear to be just a funny books about dogs versus cats actually makes some very good points and would get even the most catty cat person to think about getting a dog. Plus at over 200 pages, the pictures are almost cute enough to make the book worth it.

[bermudaonion_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats by Bradley Trevor Greive is a tongue in cheek look at why dogs have become “Man’s Best Friend.” When it came down to claiming the title, dogs had some stiff competition from all sorts of animals and Greive explains why many didn’t make the cut, including cats, who he claims, “were gonged off the stage in the preliminary rounds due to lack of interest (on their part).” He includes the full bracket to the championship and according to Grieve, it came down to the dog and the lemur. Grieve does concede that cats do have some good qualities, but in the end, according to him, they fall short of dogs.The photographs in Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats were taken by Rachael Hale and they’re simply gorgeous, like the one on the cover. They are mostly of dogs, but do include cats and a few other animals. I kept stopping while I was reading to show them to Carl.I love the fact that Grieve includes a list of questions that you should ask yourself before you buy a dog and encourages getting your pet from an animal shelter.There’s not a lot of text in Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats, but I still enjoyed it. It’s a book I’ll pick up over and over to look at the beautiful animals. This book would make a great gift because animal lovers will enjoy the humorous text and the photographs. My only complaint is that part of the text is in the back of the book under notes (they’re comments, not footnotes) and it got tiresome flipping to the back to read them.