Column: Cats and dogs are really living the life

I need only follow a pickup truck with a dog inside to observe, “What a life.” There he is, positioned tall and proud in the passenger seat — just like a person. Or his head is out the window, smiling broadly with airborne ears, squinting eyes and nose to the wind. Who wouldn’t like being chauffeured all day long?

Or I see a cat snoozing in the sun on the back of a couch or in the family’s favorite rocker. I think that if I could just “catch some ZZZZs” in the afternoon sun, I’d be purring too.

Author Garrison Keillor said that “Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.” One need only stroke the fur of a fluffy feline to know otherwise.

I’m jealous that cats’ and dogs’ time is their own. They can play outside, nap under a shrub and chase the occasional butterfly or squirrel. Cats are allowed to stand in open doorways, pausing to survey the landscape for an indeterminate number of minutes. Dogs may pause too, but nothing like cats.

One thing about dogs is that they’re always smiling. Okay, so they’re really panting (“sweating”) to stay cool; they still look like they’re grinning from ear to ear. Folks look at that face and immediately, they smile too.

Cats, on the other hand, are notoriously aloof, but no one seems to care that much. It’s like having a weird Uncle Harold. No matter what mischief one might get into, the family says, “Oh, that’s just Harold; he’s a little goofy, that’s all.” The same goes for their cat.

Some cats and dogs I’ve seen have quite the wardrobes. Their collars alone give new meaning to “accessorize.” With bright colors, studs and sequins, the well-dressed pet needs a collar, not only to carry his ID tags but to simply look cool.

Plus, there are dogs with sweaters and coats. The classic Scotty with a fleece-lined, red, plaid doggie coat is a fashion staple. Or there’s the dignified bulldog mascot sporting a sweatshirt in his place of honor at the game.

But a cat wouldn’t be caught dead in a color-coordinated outfit. She might allow the family’s children to dress her up in doll clothes though. One can only imagine what the cat is thinking.

Indeed, society has so incorporated felines and canines that people are often categorized as to whether they’re “cat people” or “dog people,” and even notables have weighed in.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), who had more than 200 mostly polydactyl cats, wrote, “No animal has more liberty than the cat, but it buries the mess it makes. The cat is the best anarchist.”

“I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt,” John Steinbeck (1902-1968) once said, “and I am convinced that basically, dogs think humans are nuts.”

Still, I think English scholar and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) said it best, “If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer.”

As I said: What a life.