By Tanya M. Ursual

From The Lanark Animal Welfare Society (LAWS) L.A.W.S., P.O. Box 156, Smiths Falls, ON, K7A 4T1:

Zach’s Blog:

Hi everyone, Zack the shelter cat back again. This week I want to discuss the truth about cats and dogs, and their distinct differences. I thought you should know the opinion of "your's truly" coming straight from the “horse’s mouth”… Ha, I’m a riot. Here we go….

The beauty of cats is how easy they are to care for. They are smart enough to know how to bathe themselves and you don’t have to take them for a walk. They are courteous enough to do their business in a litter box, never leaving a mess all over your yard. Cats are so clever, I mean have you ever seen a cat eat its own poop?

Then there is the cat personality and that is a blog for another day. In our shelter we have cats who think they own the whole place, cool cats, fat cats, cuddly cats, playful cats and the purring goes on . Cats seem to go about their own business all day, they don’t make noise and their breath doesn’t stink.

Then there are dogs. Most of the dogs I’ve met are obsessed with the same thing; food and chasing tennis balls. I can understand the food bit but chasing after a ball for hours on end just puts my whiskers in my twist. What is the thrill?

Half of the dogs in here snore so loudly they wake themselves up and the other half think they are cats. I’ve even seen one who thought he was a bird and tried to gather enough speed to launch himself into flight after a flock of geese. Some of them are big bullies but most of them drool all over the visitors and some are dumb as posts. I’ve seen dogs here that will spend hours barking at a leaf but wouldn’t utter a peep if the doorbell rang. If someone broke into the house I’m quite sure most of them would give a guided tour, making certain to point out the cupboard with the treats.

By now you are probably wondering “O.K. Zack, What’s your point?” Well I do have a point and it is that “cats rule, dogs drool!” Seriously though, I’m comfortable enough in my “felinity” to admit that I like dogs too. Some of them are quite cool. The point I’m trying to make is that everyone should have a cat.

For those of you who missed it, Lloyd Robertson of CTV news reported Thursday night on something cat lovers have known for thousands of years. Cats are good for your health!

A new U.S. study concluded that cats might offer protection against cardiovascular disease. In fact, cat owners are less likely to die from heart attack or stroke, as compared to non-cat owners.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination study is an ongoing Government Health research initiative. Researchers in Minnesota analyzed the health records submitted by 4,435 participants. It found, that more than 50 percent of the participants were either current or former cat owners. Researchers discovered that, over a 20-year period, participants who had NEVER owned a cat had a 40 per cent greater risk of death due to heart attack and a 30 per cent higher risk of death to due to any sort of cardiovascular disease. That was a 30 to 40% higher risk than cat owners.

As I pointed out earlier, cats are a lot easier to take care of, which means less stress.

This study was just presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2008 in New Orleans.

No doubt these researchers spent a gazillion dollars figuring this out. Your ingenious old buddy Zack here might not be an analytical statistician, but I could have told the researchers all of this at no charge! Ah, the glorious wisdom of cats, but that is a blog for another day…