From: John Marlow (johnmarlow@gmx.net)
Date: Sun Apr 22 2001 - 23:44:02 MDT
Dogs display greater intelligence.
jm
On 22 Apr 2001, at 20:00, Jim Fehlinger wrote:
> We wouldn't call what a cat does to a small animal it's
> found "immoral", even though most of us probably find such
> a scene distasteful. It's interesting, though, that cats
> are often symbols of evil, along with bats, snakes, and
> spiders -- the animals images used for Halloween decorations.
> I was also amused to see that in _The Book of Lost Tales_,
> the posthumously-published predecessor of J. R. R. Tolkien's
> _The Silmarillion_, the forerunner of Sauron in the
> earliest version of the Beren and Luthien story is Tevildo,
> Prince of Cats. So cats are creatures of the Devil, whereas
> dogs are friends and servants of the Valar (e.g., Huan,
> the Hound of Valinor). However, the salient ethological
> distinction is that cats are solitary hunters, whereas
> dogs, while also carnivores, know about the protocols of
> living in packs, which makes them more endearing to human
> beings.
>
> Jim F.
>
John Marlow
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