I thought dogs were supposed to be the uncritical lovers.

It depends on the cat and the human. It helps to keep in mind what cats want. Food, clean litter box, cozy place to nap, lack of sudden loud noises, attention when and as they (and not you) want it, play opportunities, and you've gone a long way. The tricky part is figuring out the priority each cat places on each of those things.

Her solution to the dizziness? She starts chasing it the other direction!

Speaking as a dancer, this actually works!

wrt cats - I like the fact that they're much less needy than dogs. I mean, I'm not anti-dog or anything, really, but the comparatively low-maintenance nature of cats suits me.

Re low-maintenance, there's a recent study checking out your pets' carbon pawprint. Apparently even a medium-sized dog is more damaging than an SUV. Cats are far more environmentally friendly. (Except in Australia, where they chew up all the native wildlife.)

(Except in Australia, where they chew up all the native wildlife.)

Huh. I would think that would be less true in Australian, what with all the freakish wildlife you have there.

• trying hard to remain de-lurked, but you are witty and fast talking bunch--one of you has usually said what I'm thinking by the time I can chime in.*

I love dogs, but I love that you have to earn it with some cats.

Baseball--I like going to the actual games, but I don't get anywhere near as involved with it as I do hockey.

Congratulations to Nicole! This Halloween will be my 15th wedding anniversary, so I happen to think it is the coolest day ever to get married. We met at a Halloween party, so it only seemed right to have a Halloween wedding--we even got our grandparents in costume, which I did not think would happen.

That is really cool, and means we have three Halloween wedding anniversaries, or will next year.

I have cats, because I can never live up to a dog's expectations. I can never be as good as they think I am. It's a constant feeling of fail. Cats don't expect so much. We're only human, after all.

one of you has usually said what I'm thinking by the time I can chime in.

Hey, lwadams! Yes, we all have that experience. You can still agree and tell the previous posters they were brilliant for agreeing with you.

One dog, one cat, four fish. They are all incredibly needy, but the fish are quieter about it and don't paw at me or lick me to get attention.