Opinion Essay

Dogs and Cats as Pets

For a long time, people have liked dogs and cats and enjoyed close relationships with them. Today, many people have a cat or a dog as a pet. According to a survey of our class, sixty percent of the students have one of them. However, a lot of people who have a pet or want to have one consider whether a cat or a dog is better for their situation. Even in our class, they have different opinions about it. Thus, it is not easy to conclude whether a cat or a dog is better as a pet. Although cats and dogs as pets each have advantages and disadvantages, I think that dogs are better suited to be pets than cats because of three reasons.

The first reason that I think dogs are better than cats as pets is because a dog can be a good friend to a person who lives alone since it is more active than a cat. Specifically, most dogs like being with their owners more than cats do. My classmate Solji said, “Actually, I have both a cat and a dog. I think a dog is more friendly with people than a cat because my dog likes being with me, but the cat likes being alone,” and Lorena also agrees it, “Dogs express a lot of emotions and are more active than cats.” In addition, dogs always welcome their owner. For example, after a day’s work, when an owner comes back home, a dog greets the owner and wags its tail. However, a cat tends not to offer as much close contact as dogs do because they are more independent. If nobody welcomes you when you get home after finishing work, how would you feel? If I faced that situation, I would feel gloomy and depressed.

Another reason that dogs are better suited as pets than cats is that a dog tries to rescue an owner when the owner is in danger. Ninety percent of the students in this class have heard or watched an amazing news story about how a dog saves an owner or sacrifices itself for the owner. Moreover, a dog may prevent a burglar from trying to break into a house. This is because thieves generally do not target a house that has a dog. Even if they target a house with a dog, they can not steal things easily because dogs can bark to alert their owners when they see a stranger. Thus, dogs can help people to live safely.

The final reason that dogs are better as pets than cats is because they are devoted and faithful to their owners. Most dogs follow their owners well, and they do not betray their owners. For instance, dogs can learn to sit, stay and roll over through their owner’s training, but it is very hard to train cats. Baito, who is my classmate, said, “My dog can sit and roll over when I tell him to.” Also, some dogs that are trained to help a handicapped person can guide a blind person to walk on the street, but cats can not do it. Actually, in my class, eighty percent of the students have seen a scene where a guide dog leads a blind person. On the other hand, they never have seen a cat who leads a blind person.

To summarize, for many years, a lot of people have discussed whether a cat or a dog makes a better pet, but the discussion is not over yet. Some people say dogs have several main advantages as pets when compared to cats. These are companionship, security, and loyalty. For these reasons, I think that dogs are better suited to be pets than cats.