Dec 22, 2023 4 min read

This Christmas, I would like a cat.

Maybe an orange one, or the black and white kind they called a tuxedo — I wouldn’t be able to name the breed because I really don’t know about cats. And I probably never will because I can’t have one.

I’m about as allergic to cats as anyone is allergic to anything, something I didn’t really learn until I was well into my teens. We were a dog family, and in all my growing-up years, there was always at least one dog in the house. For a long stretch, we had three.

And then, one day, a gray cat came sneaking around the yard. I scooped it up and brought it to the side door to ask if we could keep it. Not being cat people, my parents ex-nayed bringing the cat into the house, but we must have fed it because the cat stayed around for a while.

After holding or petting the cat, I’d start to feel it — the film that made my hands itch and the sneezes, my eyes watering like I’d chopped a million onions. The misery was such that I knew I’d have to live a cat-free life. Years later, when I developed asthma (for something not related to cats), I realized cats would trigger breathing problems, too. And now, if someone wanted to off me, they’d only have to lock me in a small room with a cat or two and no inhaler.

When my job in TV news frequently took me into people’s homes, I feared the home with cats. Once I was invited to a Christmas party at the home of new friends. As we pulled into the driveway, I noticed their mailbox was festooned with images of cats. I knew it would be a short evening.

Why my new interest in cats, then? My son and his fiance have two. When we do visits on Facetime, my son shows me around his apartment, and my two grandfelines can be seen scampering around, getting into mischief. The kids also have aquarium tanks that house their beloved fish, frogs and two tarantulas. And the cats are the ring leaders of this menagerie.

“They’re so entertaining,” my son says. He was raised with dogs and will one day have dogs again. But for now, living in an apartment, it’s cats for them.

And watching their cats and hearing about the cats of some other family members, here’s what I’ve learned (and it’s mostly in comparison to dogs). Cats are sneaky and quiet but are smart. They can be aloof and even snobby. Cats act like they don’t need people. Dogs, on the other hand, are needy and typically dumb. Cats perform when they feel like it, and dogs can’t help being comical. Dogs slobber, and cats don’t. Dogs need people to keep a game of catch going. Cats amuse themselves.

In my freshman year of college, I had an assignment to present a speech to persuade. Other students debated capital punishment and abortion. Me, I stood before the class and presented an argument that dogs are better than cats.

“Miss Dolinar,” said the professor, “Who cares?”

I know-stupid choice for a topic. I think I got a C-minus for the speech.

In the speech, I took the side of dogs. I did so not knowing anything about cats except that they tend to get me sick. Now, watching my grandcats box with each other and curl atop the sofa, I think I’ve been missing something.

Having a cat would be fun, if only I could.