Are Cats Second Class Citizens?

The Germans love their dogs, which is so endearing to see. Everyone seems to be a dog owner, dog lover, purchaser or purveyor of dog supplies and equipment, and all-around dog aficionado. It is grand fun and quite entertaining to sit on the apartment balcony and watch the parade of dogs being walked by their owners.

The Germans appear to be breed agnostic. German Shepherds and Dachshunds are obvious favorites, but our neighbors also have an affinity for Labradors, Golden Retrievers, Dalmatians, Collies, Sheepdogs, Jack Russells, Spaniels of all sorts (Cocker, Springer, English, Brittany, and King Charles), Corgis, Scotties, Beagles, Bassets, Bloodhounds, Bull Mastiffs, Boxers, Pugs…oh, the list just goes on and on. Each evening, we see an endless stream of dogs walking along the neighborhood sidewalks as if they are strutting the runway of a beauty pageant.

The thing is this: While I have had my fair share of dogs in the past, currently I am exclusively a cat owner (and yes, there are more pet owners of cats than dogs in the US). I just can’t get a sense of how popular cats are in Germany, if at all. My anecdotal data suggests that the popularity of cats lags significantly behind dogs and that the “canine is king”, as these examples might show: · Our vet office only has pictures of dogs in the waiting room, as opposed to any other pets, including cats. Now why is this?

· Vet clinics in Germany do not board pets for owners who are traveling on business or pleasure. Recently, Buddy and I were provided a list of boarding facilities from our vet, yet when we called the companies on the list, only 2 of the entire lot were either willing or capable of boarding cats. Not sure why, as felines are a much easier animal to board. Even when we asked our local vet why this trend existed in Germany, he shrugged his shoulders and simply said “Dogs are more popular”. Yea…got that message.

· Pet stores have rows and rows of food and other products for the canine. Sandwiched at the end of the one row is the cat food, litter, and a small assortment of feline-related products.

· I have seen a few random cats skulking in the neighborhood but I can count on one hand the number of times this has occurred. Message: People either don’t own cats or don’t let them outside.

· A dog tax of 5% (of something) is assessed for those German citizens owning dogs; no such tax exists for cats. Perhaps the rationale has more to do with the need to pay for city “pooper-scoopers” rather than anything else.

Clearly, it’s a dog’s world….