Animals | Pets in America

4 interesting psychological differences between dog and cat people

October 24, 2018August 2, 2018 Seth Lawley

Let us talk psychology! We actually briefly mentioned in an earlier post about interesting psychological traits of cat people and dog people. In this post, we want to expand on that. This is an area where a lot of research is being done to gain a subtle understanding of why people like certain things.

If you recall any psychology course you may have taken, say back in your university or high school days, you will recall that complex psychological assessments of personalities ultimately boil down to simple traits exhibited by people. In this context, the simple trait is simply why people prefer dogs over cats, or vice versa.

Mental stability

Mental instability or Neuroticism is a complex problem that affects many people here in the United States. It can be triggered by many factors, and can express itself in many ways as well. Studies show that cat people are 12 percent more neurotic than dog people, probably because the high-maintenance nature of cats would actually have turned their owners into hilariously more neurotic people! J

Loneliness

We often hear of old ladies staying by themselves with a couple of cats in the house. Turns out that this trend of loneliness is not just restricted to old people. Cat people tend to live by themselves relatively compared to dog people. Perhaps it has something to do with the more domestic nature of a cat, whereas dogs often need to go out and stay active.

Timid in nature

This is linked slightly to the earlier point on loneliness. Cat owners tend to be more shy and docile compared to dog people. They often won’t fight for their point or opinion in social conversations, and are not aggressive or dominant. Naturally, the opposite applies to dog owners. While you cannot state with certainty that aggressiveness is a positive trait, it is more preferred to timidness.

Intelligence

So far, it may seem that cat owners have an inherent psychological disadvantage as compared to dog people. However, that is entirely untrue. Cat people tend to be intellectually more developed and exhibit a nature of intellectual curiosity. They have been shown to have a higher IQ and quotients linked to the left side of the brain.

All these points have been proved by various studies that have been conducted to find out why people have differences in preferences. At Pets in America, we find these extremely interesting.

4 fun, interesting facts about cats that you didn’t know!

September 25, 2018August 2, 2018 Seth Lawley

Most of us are either cat people or dog people. There is an interesting psychological test that you can conduct depending on whether one is a cat person or a dog person. Cat people prefer warmth and affection, while dog people prefer activity and outdoors.

And that is simply one dimension of the psychology test that you can apply. There are many more, but let us not digress. In this post, we want to focus purely on cats. Ah.. those furry, cuddly creatures that can sometimes slightly annoy you by scratching you pointlessly, and yet are universally loved! Cats in general are members of the Feline family, which feature other beauties such as the Cheetah, Leopard and the king of them all, the lion.

Cats have a lot of interesting facts about them, that even the most ardent cat lovers may not completely know. If you had a penny for every time you stared at your cat and wondered what the hell it is thinking, you would be a wealthy person by now. Let us talk about some of these facts.

That jump!

If there is anything that is amazing about cats, it is the fact that they can easily break the record for high jump. If you think Spiderman is cool because he can cling to walls, just look at a cat jumping and effortlessly clinging to any surface it come to contact with. Cats can apparently jump up to a mind-blowing five times its height!

Sleep addicts

You know that your cat loves to sleep. In fact, it pretty much does nothing except sleep, poop and eat. It is one of the most adorable characteristics of the furry feline. The interesting fact is when you look into the numbers. Cats spend up to 70% of the time dozing. One thing is for sure… you cannot put them in an office and expect them to get anything done

No sweet tooth

Imagine a life where you cannot taste the pure, unadulterated sweetness of a piece of candy, a doughnut or even a delicious chocolate cake. What a hellish world that would be! Well, cats know a thing or two about that. They cannot taste sweetness within food.

Sweating down??

One of the most adorable things about a cat is their foot pads. Those tiny, cute and cuddly little feet can often make the toughest man swoon. Well, the next time you touch those feet, just keep in mind this fact. Cats can sweat only through their foot pads!

Oh, we can say so much more about cats, but we don’t want to bore you with a very long post. You can read up much more if you visit resources on the internet. Check out some of these resources at our ‘Resources’ section.

4 species that went extinct as a result of human actions

July 8, 2018August 2, 2018 Seth Lawley

The basic tent of evolution is adaptability. If you aren’t able to adapt to natural changes, you stand the risk of extinction. Any species is bound to go extinct at some point of time. However, in some cases, some species have gone extinct or stand the risk of it due to forced causes.

Human beings are masters at this exercise of forcing an event. Too often, human being disrupt the natural order of things and cause unintended consequences. Think of the extinctions that have happened as a result of artificial causes just in the past century. We are not talking about a few handful, rather dozens of species!

1917 – Bubal Hartebeest

A species that was hunted to extinction, the Bubal Hartebeest was a majestic antelope that roamed the forests of Algeria, Senegal and large swaths of the Sahara. The creature is said to be ancient, with traces of it appearing in ancient works such as the Old Testament. It is quite unfortunate that we won’t get to see this beauty again.

1924 – Californian Grizzly Bear

Californians would recall this name, especially since it is their state symbol. The majestic beast weighed up to 2000 pounds and grew up to 8 feet. While most of these went extinct in the 19^th century, the last few were hunted down by the mid-1900s. In this case, however, all the blame cannot be attributed to humans since many a time such bears were killed as they kept consuming livestock in rural areas. It is refreshing to see Californians recognize their home-grown species even today.

1936 – Tasmanian Tiger

The Thylacines dominated large part of Tasmania. Their stripes were quite peculiar and unique, making them easily identifiable. With a more similar build to dogs, these creatures were smaller than their yellow and black- striped counterparts. The excessive hunting of the last few remnants of this species within the Tasmanian rainforests led to a complete extinction.

1968 – Guam flying fox

Nope, you did not hear that wrong. There was actually such a thing as a flying fox. It was in fact a bat whose wings stretched as much as 70 centimeters, that roamed the forests of Guam. The extinction of the species, which happened sometime in 1968, was a result of multiple causes. These included predators that preyed on it and hunting.

The list is endless, and many more have suffered as a result of human actions. One would hope that humans would learn from their lessons, but alas, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

The relation between humans and animals from a psychological lens

May 23, 2018August 2, 2018 Seth Lawley

There is an instinctive attraction within the mammal class. Homosapiens, the most advanced of all animals, have a biological preference towards species within their own class. It is the reason why despite the fact that humans are predatory creatures at the higher realms of the food chain, many of us love to take care of animals.

For centuries, humans have developed companionship with animals. Think of the Stone Age inscriptions and paintings of animals. Despite man’s position as a hunter at the time, man respected strength and animals that displayed strength, such as the Rhinoceros. In fact, man sometimes hunted with an animal by his side.

In the modern age, animals continue to be our companion, whether it is for hunting, search operations or other activities. Naturally, we consume many families with the Animalia kingdom as food, but that is a generic feature within the kingdom. As predatory beings, every creature hunts others of a lower standing in the food chain.

Yet another type of companionship between humans and species of the animal kingdom is friendship. It is the reason why people own or adopt pets. Pets provide us love and warmth, and receive them in equal measures. Naturally, we have preferences. Some of us prefer felines and some canines. Some of us prefer aquatic creatures and the rest Aves.

In reality, the preference doesn’t matter. What matters is understanding the inherent psychology that leads people to own or adopt pets. From a biological standpoint, human beings have not been programmed to exhibit cruelty. Yes, we hunt and eat animals, but that is purely from a physiological point of view.

The intention of this post is to make our readers and the wider community understand that cruelty is simply a matter of choice. There is simply no excuse that can be made that we are inclined to exhibit cruelty. The history of our evolution says otherwise.