Compare and contrast: Dogs and Cats.

Owning a house pet can be an enjoyable experience, if a potential owner takes time before purchasing the animal to research what type of care will be needed for the type of animal he or she chooses. Dogs and cats are among the most popular pets; however, their care is drastically different, obviously they do have similarities between the two, they both have hair and are in the mammal family. They also give birth to multiple offspring at the same time. If the potential owner shows love and affection to these animals, they will show it back. The both are also good stress relievers for many owners.

Dogs, compared to cats, require more maintenance. Maintaining a dog requires the owner to bathe and groom them regularly. An owner needs to have plenty of time to spend with a dog; unlike cats, they require a great deal of love and attention. Dogs would rather play around and spend time with their owner. They enjoy the outdoors and are very trainable to go outside. The majority of dogs do not have a tendencies to mess with furniture or scratch on the owner's possessions. Feeding a dog may possibly be expensive because they are often quite particular. An owner may have to go through a great number of different dog foods before the dog settles on a certain kind of food.

In contrast, cats are self-sufficient, as for grooming, cats are clearly better at self-cleaning than dogs. They will spend most their waking hours tongue bathing themselves and picking large clumps of fur balls out of their hair. Unfortunalty, having a luxurious, clean cat means wet hairballs lurking in unexpected places, like inside the owner's shoes, on the carpet, and on clothes. When it comes to the cat and its litter box, this is a different story. The clean up and the odor of the litter box isn't an enjoyable event. Also feeding cats is a great deal cheaper than dogs. Cats are picky, but most will eat relatively any kind of cat food, despite the cost to the owner. Cats have an awful habit of climbing and clawing at or on the owner's furniture. Therefore, it is important to have plenty of toys and a scratching post for your cat.

Therefore, before making a decision to get a pet, one actually needs to research the information about different kinds of dogs and cats to suit specific needs and lifestyles of a potential pet owner.