Dogs or cats?

I probably like cats more than dogs, as I primarily grew up with them, but I do like dogs as well.

The first cat I remember my family having was a female cat named Milo (I make the distinction because last year my Dad got a male puppy he named Milo) when I was growing up in Colorado. She was an indoor/outdoor cat, sweet and very independent. At some point we took in a kitten that was part of a litter that a friend’s mom had rescued. We named him Otis (as in The Adventures of Milo & Otis) but unfortunately he didn’t seem too bright. Where Milo had been with us for several years and was smart enough to always come back safely when she was let outside, Otis wasn’t with us very long as he never came back one day. We never learned what became of him.

Within the few years after my Mom passed away, my family had gotten two dogs, starting with the German Short Haired Pointer we named Greta (and my poor Grandma couldn’t get her name right, always calling her Gretchen). Then there was Sophie, who was very much another Otis. Very sweet, but not too bright.

Then there are the many dogs my Stepmom had rescued, and all the farm cats we had when we moved to South Dakota that became partly domesticated. All were named, but combined there were probably more than 30 over the years, and I don’t remember the majority of them (especially since we’ve had so many horses on top of all of that!)

I was originally going to keep this post short, but I couldn’t immediately decide one way or the other. I was then hoping that by the end of writing it I might reach a conclusive answer, but unfortunately I can’t pick one or the other. So, it’s both.