black cats

''between dogs and cats my degree of choice is so great that it would never occur to me to compare the two, i have no active dislike for dogs ... but for the cat i have entertained a particular respect and affection ever since the earliest days of my infancy ... naturally one's preference in the matter of cats and dogs depends wholly upon ones temperment and point of view. the dog would appear to me to be the favorite of superficial, sentimental, and emotional people ... this is not to say that the cheaper elements do not also reside in the average cat-lover's love of cats, but merely to point out that in ailurophily there exists a basis of true aestheticism which kynophily does not possess ...

''throw a stick, and the servile dog wheezes and pants and stumbles to bring it to you. do the same before a cat, and he would eye you with coolly polite and somewhat bored amusement ... the dog barks and begs and tumbles to amuse you when you crack the whip. ... the cat on the other hand, charms you into playing for its benefit when it wishes to be amused; making you rush about the room with a paper on a string when it feels like exercise, but refusing all your attempts to make it play when it is not in the humour. that is personality and individuality and self respect--the calm mastery of a being whose life is its own and not yours ...

''the cat is a realist, and no hypocrit. he takes what pleases him when he wants it, and makes no promises. he never leads you to expect more from him than he gives, and if you choose to be stupidly victorian enough to mistake his purrs and rubbings of self satisfaction for marks of transient affection toward you, that is no fault of his. he would not for a moment have you believe that he wants more of you than food and warmth and shelter and amusement--''

h.p.lovecraft, something about cats.