Both my mother and my brother were allergic to cats when I was growing up. Consequently, I never spent much time around the animals. Recently I moved into a new apartment with a friend who has two cats, so I've started to learn about them in something of a crash course. Here's what I've learned about Felis Catus since switching residences.

1. Dogs, they certainly are not

Just because I didn't experience cats in my childhood doesn't mean that I never had a pet. In fact, my family adopted a lovable mutt who lived among us for nearly 15 years. I got very used to handling dogs, which I've discovered is considerably easier than cohabiting with a cat. Dogs and humans evolved together and we bred them specifically to be our animal companions. So, dogs are possessed of a few things cats simply don't have. Take, for instance, a proper language center in their brains. Dogs can recognize a small vocabulary of words and happen to have a disposition that wants to respond to them favorably. Dogs are creatures of service and obedience. Cats, on the other hand, have no means of comprehending language beyond tone and they have very little incentive to actually do as humans please.

2. Cats, despite the above, attempt to converse

Dogs bark when something needs to be brought to a human's attention. Cats meow when a human's attention needs to be brought to the cat itself. Cats announce themselves and plead for care. I find this a bit disconcerting, receiving social communication from a creature with no thumbs.

3. Cats are strangely thoughtful and thoughtfully strange

In the past two and a half weeks, I have witnessed a cat meow at a closed bathroom door for an hour straight, demand attention only to become aloof the instant it's granted and gaze out a window in a regal pose at absolutely nothing. I have resigned myself to the reality that cats, or at least the ones that live with me, have thought patterns that are far more esoteric and eccentric than one might imagine coming from a creature with no primate brain structure. This is both charming and reliably bizarre.

4. Cats are not pets, they are house guests

A friend of mine used this particular phrase several years ago, but I didn't understand it until now. Cats do not conceive of themselves as being creatures of dependence or service. At best, they recognize that the humans among them are authorities or highly proficient equals. Like a house guest, a cat is only as courteous as it needs to be. Give a cat unhindered freedom and it will most certainly exercise it. Establish firm limits and it might just come to an understanding with you.

I can't exactly say that I am or ever will be a "cat person". I can't imagine myself ever adopting one on my own. Still, being able to interact with domestic cats is a useful skill and I feel that much more capable having shared a space with the animals.