But why SHOULD they be grateful? Humans aren’t grateful all the time, that would be a very uncomfortable and unhealthy way to live.

I read somewhere that women tend to like cats more because the cat does whatever it wants and if its needs aren’t met it makes its feelings clear, and that reflects what a woman wants to be like but often feels socially or culturally pressured not to be!

I have cats because my work patterns and living arrangements are incompatible with having a dog; but the more I have cats and get to know other people’s dogs, the more I prefer the former (I should mention that the dogs I know best are spaniels, so particularly ‘devoted doggie’ sort of dogs). I get creeped out by the adoring bit – it’s kind of psycho. Who NEEDS to be worshipped, to have an animal act as if you’re that necessary to their happiness, all the time? It’s soppy and it’s irritating, and it’s not terribly companionable, to my mind – it puts responsibility onto the owner to BE as great as the dog thinks they are, and you have to be responsible about it – if you snap at a dog, they get all hurt and that, and it’s unkind. If/when I get a dog, I’m definitely going for something feisty and independent-minded and hard to train like a working terrier, something without that simple-minded soppiness. Grendel definitely has that sort of quality about him!