"Laura R." wrote in
message .net...
circa Tue, 18 Nov 2003 19:50:03 GMT, in rec.pets.cats.health+behav,
Governor George Liquor ) said,
Why is it, or what is it about them, that elicits
such strongly negative reactions from those that don't like cats?


I sometimes think that one of the (irrational) reasons that some
people don't like cats is because they are so efficiently, ferally
beautiful. People who love cats see the "cute" features of cats but
also are capable of appreciating the purely predatory nature of a
cat's physique and the predatory aspects of a cat's behavior. Cat
lovers can appreciate the astounding evolutional purity that makes
cats so well-built for what they are.

Cats don't look anything like people. Their eyes look like the eyes
of no other creature on the planet except for snakes. Cats'
expressions come much less from their eyes than from all of their
other parts (despite the feeling of most of us who love cats that
their eyes are very expressive). The reality is, aside from the
degree of openness of their eyes and the length of their stares,
cats' expressions come more from their ears, their whiskers, their
tails and their body positions.

By contrast, dogs have those little "eyebrow" muscles above their
round, more similar to human, eyes. A dog can look like a sad sack
simply because his brows are furrowed. Cats rarely look like a sad
sack. Cats almost always look somehow predatory, even when they're
completely blissed out.

[snip]

My two cents,

Laura

All very astute.