[Diamond18]

Well, that is somewhat true. But why do pets have to do a chore to be worthwhile? I think being cute, and nice to pet (and affectionate, I don't care what anyone else says, most of my cats were affectionate) is plenty.

Right now I have no cats, but one dog. She is the most annoying, neurotic, stupid creature to walk the planet. So I'm not really big on dogs at the moment. She does nothing but bark, bark, bark, and whenever guns go off outside or thunderstorms happen, or we touch the flyswatter (or my dad uses the grill, that's her new "thing") she shivers, pants, shakes: basically has a breakdown.

Erm, so anyway, you can't generalize dogs and cats that way. When you come right down to it pets are useless if you want work done. If I want to kill a mouse, I have to do it myself. (i.e. Set a trap).

For me, cats are just smarter than dogs. I don't like a creature that fawns over me whether I deserve it or not, so the thing about dogs being "more loyal" has something to do with why I like cats better. For instance, my grandmother had a cat that ran away when I and my brother and cousins came over, when we were very young. It didn't like our overbearing attention. But once I was older, it really liked me. It would seek me out when I came over, and demand that I pet it. Why the change? I improved, and the cat recognized that.

To tie this in with Tolkien, I think dogs would serve Morgoth better than cats, because they would, in reality, follow him blindly just because he was "master" without caring whether or not what they were doing was right. (I mean, if you look at them as rational creatures like Huan who even know what right and wrong is.) Cats would make the decision for themselves.