Volume 9　お気に入りのペットは？


Dogs vs. Cats

Michael Rhys: Hello everyone and welcome to the February edition of Cultural Crossroads. I'm Mike . . .

Ann Slater: And I'm Ann. 

Michael: Thank you for joining us. Hey Ann, I was gonna ask you, do you have any pets?

Ann: I do. I do perchance. I have a very naughty Westie.

Michael: A Westie.

Ann: Ha-ha, a Westie.

Michael: What is a Westie? Ha-ha.

Ann: Ha-ha. A, uh, West Highland white terrier.

Michael: A dog! Ah.

Ann: Yeah. It's a dog. How about you?

Michael: Well, our current pet is a cat.

Ann: Oh.


Michael: A little Singapura. Now interesting - people and their pets. Do you prefer dogs?

Ann: To cats?

Michael: Yes.

Ann: Um, in some way I do, in some way I do. Uh, we have, some members of my family are allergic to cats so I will never know whether I would like to have a cat as a pet or not. I think some cats are really beautiful. For example the, uh, Persian cats - is it? The beautiful gray puffy ones, I love those. But dogs I find very personable, although I hear cats are too, you know. I think they're probably less refined than cats but there's something very lovable about them.

Michael: It does seem that people tend to fall into two camps: they're either dog lovers or cat lovers. And, uh, for me, I definitely prefer cats. Really for the same reason that other people like dogs. They are a little too personable. They're a little too dependent.

Ann: Clingy. 

Michael: They're clingy. You come home and there's the little dog, "bow-wow-wow." Whereas cats are very, very independent. They will give you lots of affection if they feel like it.

Ann: Ah, ah. Uh-huh.

Michael: At other times they'll look at you and they'll think, "Nah, not today. I'm gonna go off and sit by the window."

Ann: Ha-ha.

Michael: And I like that kind of streak of independence that you get from cats.


Ann: Now one interesting thing to me is that I remember when I first came to Japan, many years ago, you didn't really see all the dogs around that you do now. And certainly there wasn't the whole industry around pets that there is now in Japan. And, um, it's such a big thing here, you know, where you see people, like, their dogs are in clothes. And the other day in our neighborhood, somebody had their dog in shoes. Or my favorite is the strollers, which, ha-ha . . . I mean, I thought dogs are supposed to walk, aren't they? Ha-ha, but what do you think about all that and how is it, I mean, are they similarly treated in, in the U.K.?

Michael: Not for the most part, no, I mean, there, obviously there are people who go the whole hog with the dressing up the dogs and treating them pretty much as children, I guess. But for most people no, a dog is, it's a dog. It's got its own feet, it can walk. It's got its own fur - it doesn't need any extra clothing. It's a friend, it's a companion, but it's still a dog. It's not a substitute for a human being, that's for sure.

Ann: Yeah, and I think certainly when we were growing up, we always had dogs, but they were very, sort of - what's the word? - there was a sort of laissez-faire kind of way that we had 'em. We had a dog, you know sometimes she was outside, sometimes she was inside. Where we were living was a more suburban kind of place where, that she actually had free rein all day so she would just be gone. Like, while we were at school and, and my parents were at work, and she would go off on her own all day. And then, when she knew we were coming home or she would see my parents' car coming home, she would come home.

Michael: That strikes me as being very cat- like behavior.

Ann: Ah-ha, see, you've underestimated dogs.

Michael: I have indeed. Yes. 

Ann: Ha-ha.