I dunno. There's something weird about keeping an animal indoors, and on a leash when it's allowed to leave. Maybe it doesn't want to stay. Maybe it wants to explore the wide world and go places. Gosh knows that a lot of dogs will try to run for it if the door is left open. We say that they're safer indoors, but that's true for everyone really, and most of us agree that it's better and more healthy for a human being to go out and about and live life. Growing up, I saw my parents feed the occasional stray to wander by our house out in the country. Looking at that, that's a relationship that is based more around mutual benefit and respect. The animal isn't a captive, it's a working member of the farm who stays because it wants to. That's much more meaningful.
MANDOG, chapter 1 ...Rex was footloose & out of uniform. 'A bone, outdoors, watching my cattle? Think you can handle the challenge?' 'Yessir, woof, don't woof with me, woof, we should get along fine for two weeks then I'm on the woof again, mister, ya hear, open road lifestyle?' 'A deal, Rex. How you like your Bonio, huh huh.' 'Huh huh, woof.'
Please note, my purpose was not to criticize American or European citizens owning dog, but I leaned on the news, how many Americans or probably European people are injured by dogs annually. The number reaches 40 million injures in a decade just in America! This is an alert about the population of dogs in the west and the danger of this type of pet in the populous cities. Surely, dog exist in every land but the problem in America and Europe is that, it usually exist in every house and this increases their population incredibly! Also the household dogs are more sensitive to passers or strangers than stray dogs, because a household dog thinks, it should supports its owner and his places against strangers! The stray dogs usually (if are not excited ) try to keep away from humans because they imagine, humans can hurt them; they also haven't any motivation to support anybody. Nonetheless, this is not a certain thing always. I'm not informed about other non European and American countries but here in Iran the population of dogs is not much. Usually ranchers and villagers hold some dogs and also a little number of persons hold some puppy-like dogs that is not considerable and some stray dogs exist in the countryside of cities. In recent years, the Iranian department of health with help of municipal organization catches the stray male dogs and neuter them to stop their generation. I think this is a more merciful method than putting an end on their life. However, the discussion is not about existence of dog that is a bad being, but it is about the extreme population of household dogs in Europe and America that have created a serious problem for citizens of these lands. Another lovely Iranian cat
I'm sure my cat caused me approximately that many injuries last time she decided she wanted to play. She's sank her teeth into unannounced infinitely more times than any dog I've had.
Probably a good thing. Evolution has given us use-it-or-lose-it biology. It wouldn't surprise me that if we don't occasionally get injured, our ability to heal decreases. A dog (unintentionally) bit my throat once (I got between it and another dog it was fighting). Fortunately, it was an Irish Setter, so no big deal.
usually cats don't use their claws or teeth in play with their owners unless they are frightened by something and feel a danger (In the bosom of their owners). So they begin mewling unsatisfied, show their teeth, reveal their claws and start squirming. In this situation you should release it and allow it to go back to calmness after a while. Also if you play with it for a long time persistently it become impatient and nervous and may offer you the taste of a claw to get rid LOL Usually cats haven't a high feeling of familiarity and friendship to their owners like dogs. They are proud, selfish and tend into wildness easier than dogs. Cats never accompany their owners in a long course and when meet their owners don't show notable eagerness. In a box; cats are colder than dogs and you never can train a cat or a wolf to have a warm relationship with human often and always. Saadi one of the most famous Iranian poet (750 years ago) says in a poem: If you give a dog a morsel of food, it will never forget your mercy if you even hit it with stones many times afterwards. But if you nourish a villain all you lifetime, he will fight with you for the smallest thing Saving a rare Iranian wild cat breed that an illegal trapper caught it in one of the deserts. The environmental guards could arrest the trapper and take back the wonderful cat. They carried it to the office to be cared, and also the experts do some studies about it. I have never seen such the cat in Iran and this shows that it is a very rare species. I wonder the guard holds the wild cat with bare hand because of love to it LOL
every cat i've owned has used claws and teeth when playing. my one cat loved when you put your hand inside a sock. she'd crouch, ready herself, then pounce on the hand/sock and use her back claws and teeth to try to kill hand/sock (ouch). Another cat I've had liked to lay on the bed and whenever got in to bed, he'd pounce on your feet moving under the covers and use claws. with feather strings (i have no idea what they are called officially), they extend their claws when trying to get the feather at the end of the string. I dont know how you play with your cats, but mine bit and scratched (not maliciously) when they played. Same with my farret. he bites and scratches, but like the cats, not hard enough to draw blood. I also beg to differ. When my sister came back from the hospital, we got her a kitten. this kitten attached himself to her. He is now an adult cat, and he hates literally everyone, but when he sees my sister, he gets happy. he knows when she's upset and when she cries, he sits on her chest or back and snuggles her. when she's not home, he hides. when she comes home, he's the first one to greet her. my aunt got her cat after her mother passed away. she was depressed and her doctor told her to get a cat. she adopted her adult cat. this cat lived his whole life in an abandoned mill, but he LOVES my aunt. he's now a senior cat with like 1 tooth left. I spent the night at her house once, in her room (she slept in a spare room) and when her cat came in and couldnt find her, he went in the hallway and SCREAMED for 20 minutes straight until my aunt called his name and he ran down the hall to her room. Before I was born, my mom had a cat. when my mom had my brother, her cat would "baby sit" him. he'd sit up on the shelf and watch him sleep. when a raccoon got into the yard where my brother was playing and the cat ran outside and attacked the raccoon to defend my brother (i always wondered why my moms cat had no tail, come to find out, he lost it fighting with the raccoon) Grandpa and Grandma's cat watches over them. My grandpa had dementia and his cat was alway by his side until he passed away. now he watches over grandma and makes sure she wakes up, and when she's gone for way too long, he goes to look for her in the house and relaxes once he finds her. She found him in an alley when he was a few weeks old and bottle fed him. cats can get just as attached to and form friendships with their owners as dogs do. Every cat my family has owned, I feel, has formed some type of attachment to us. but again, every family/owner and their relationship with their animals are different.
In general, though, you have to admit that dogs get more attached to their owners than cats do. That's not to say you can't have friendly cats and aloof dogs, but in general.
To be honest, I'm pretty wary of dogs myself. I don't know enough about their behavior but I've always been confused as to why they automatically go stupid with aggression at the sight or sound of any person when they're in the home. I'm not even talking about the mailman who comes to the door; I'm talking people just going for a stroll. They just have an absolute obnoxious meltdown over it. I have more faith in dogs when they're with their owners. I used to work for the tax assessing department for the township I live in. This required us to go door to door asking owners for their permission to walk around their property (they were encouraged to go with us if it would make them feel more at ease) taking note of building materials, or new additions to their house / new buildings on the premises. Anyway, we absolutely dreaded houses with dogs. Often times they'd be outside on nice days, because many homeowners have dog fences and have successfully trained their dogs not to wander off like buffoons. The problem for us though is that usually the homeowners would be sleeping, or otherwise inside / in the backyard, and I'm honestly surprised neither me or my friend were ever bitten / attacked. I'd love to own a dog some day, and not some little rat. I don't want a poor excuse for a dog but a *real* dog. But you need to do a good job training and socializing them. And I suppose it's worth mentioning that a lot of dogs are all bark and no bite. But there's zero way of knowing that in advance. I've seen nice dogs bark and snarl like they're going to tear you to pieces, and vicious dogs growl in a very misleading way, or sometimes give practically no warning at all. I've also been around dogs where, despite all reassurances from the owner, I can't shake the feeling that at any moment I could step on an egg-shell and that thing will go berserk. Watch suspects get apprehended by police dogs. Unless you're a bodybuilder or have a gun / knife, there's no stopping that thing until the K9 officer says so.
However, the danger of household dog attacks is unavoidable. It is not clear when they attack and which motivation is the cause of attack. Barking of dogs is a warning but sometimes they attack unaware and in silence (dependent on the dog's mood at the moment). It is good you know even wolves scare of watchdogs and try not to confront them. Years ago, I had a far friend who was rancher. He had a cattle of sheep in a remote place in the mountain. He took me to the place with his jeep. When we reached the place four aggressive dogs jumped on the hood of the car and all began barking to me very angry, from behind the windshield. The rancher said to me :" Nobody comes here and they have never seen a human here, except the shepherds and me." The looked at me with red and yellow eyes, showed their teeth and barked by all wrath. I didn't dare to get off and he ordered the shepherds to drive away and conciliate them. He said, this area has wolves that try to attack the cattle but scare of these aggressive dogs and come not close to the place. We install a buckler with a sharp arrow on the chest of the dogs to injure the wolves and ward off them, because the fur of wolves is bristly and the dogs can bite them by difficulty. When the dogs encounter the wolves strike them with the buckler instead of biting. This shows that the watchdogs are more persistent than wolves in defense and attack more daring. So such the guards in the populous cities can be the cause of many attack, because it doesn't matter whether their target is a wolf or human; they just want to defense their owners' boundary, based on their imagination. The problem is that, the most of the household dogs act like a watchdog. Of course we should not forget the household cats sometimes act like a watchdog as well LOL
I can't find the dog bite statistics for Chicago, but at least shootings and murders were down last year
