Juice jam splat the cat full#

A dog or ferret in the same situation is no less prone to killing 'for fun' (cf. Notably, this is true for other domestic predators as well - cats are simply let out on their own more often, and thus have more chances to chase prey. The difference is that wild predators are typically hungry enough to eat their catch when they're done, while the need to conserve resources and avoid injuries limits how much time and energy they can afford to expend chasing everything they see cats, being well-fed and sheltered, don't experience these limiting factors. In addition, cats' 'hunting for fun' is a result of a trait present in all predators - an instinctive drive to hunt creatures that register as prey. Note that this doesn't make cats 'mean' - they don't have any understanding of human morality in the first place you know, like most animals. Cats are also infamous for hunting and killing for fun (for a primitive value of the word fun), even when they're not going to eat the prey (though given that among the other animals known to do this are humans and the only ones who really enjoy it at that, we don't really have much room to give cats grief about it). 'A deadly game of cat and mouse' is often a very real situation cats not taught to hunt properly by their mothers often appear to clumsily toy with their prey before killing it, and even veteran mousers will play with their quarry before killing and consuming them, in order to avoid being bitten, since the saying is correct that ' even a cornered mouse will snap at a cat ' (but only when the mouse is aware of the cat meanwhile, a cat that ambushes a mouse by surprise will kill it instantly, which is why cats are experts at hunting by stealth and secrecy). Simultaneously, there is a grain of 'truth' to this trope. Many women (especially lesbians, who were often historically spinsters by necessity) have attempted to re-appropriate the ' Crazy Cat Lady' stereotype as a positive identity. The old saying says that dogs are a man's best friend, so men who own cats are thus seen as pussies and not 'real' men. This stereotype even extends to the Male Gaze, where cats are seen as having sex appeal. Cats in general have been associated with women and, since Most Writers Are Male, they have often been used for misogynistic stereotypes where cats have negative traits associated with women but dogs are presented with positive traits associated with men. At the same pyres witches were burned, cats were burned too.

Much of this no doubt descends from Medieval European folklore associating cats with successful spinsters and later witches or other forces of evil.

Juice jam splat the cat full#

In real life, it says more about a dog's training as many owners of small dogs continue to treat them as puppies rather than full grown dogs who need to be disciplined. When they are genuinely annoying, this characteristic is given to stereotypical small yappy breeds that reflect their owners.

Unlike cats, dogs are rarely portrayed as evil unless the cast specifically only features dogs and antagonists are needed (the obvious exceptions, of course, being the tropes of the evil tear-'em-to-pieces junkyard dog, the psychotic poodle and the Hellhound). Nor is the fact that a whole category of dogs - terriers - also kill small, cute rodents. Notably, the real threat that mice present - their ability to overpopulate, consume stores, and carry dangerous parasites, which is the original reason we bred cats in the first place - is seldom mentioned in fiction. Protagonist cats rarely eat mice ( rats, on the other hand.).

Since mice (and birds) are often depicted as being intelligent, the express desire to eat them becomes a type of cannibalism and is therefore evil. Dogs aren't exempt from this behavior in real life but are rarely portrayed as predatory in fiction. It certainly doesn't help considering highly-marketable, small creatures are typically the kind of things cats see as prey. As a result, many writers who like cats, such as the late Terry Pratchett and Paul Gallico, play into the trope by presenting their pet as something of The Chessmaster, expertly manipulating humans. Parts of this have to do with traditional traits that even cat lovers admire - independence and pride for some equals lack of love for the owners and aloofness for others. Both sets of animals will have vices, but a dog is more likely to do harm unintentionally. While cat and dog owners can cite a truckload of quirks on both ends of the spectrum, when both species are featured in fiction, you are far more likely to find an outright cruel, nasty, and otherwise vicious cat character.