Cats also kill vermin, provide a stress remover known as purring, and are very entertaining. Plus they try to teach you how to hunt by giving you gifts.
Yeah, usually cats bury their own shit. Man's best friend, on the other side... Even if this was the only positive thing, when you sum it for all the days you keep your pet, it's not a small gain.
True. Some breeds are far more intelligent than others and even so, they need training. However, when trained, they are definitely more useful (not necessarily better as a pet, but more useful). It comes down to preference. I don't have or plan to have either but if I had to choose, the dog's loyalty/friendliness would be the trump card. That said, they each have their own pros and cons.
I don't know what is more impressive, the fact that the cat can duel wield lightsabers or the fact that the dog seems resistant to them.
I will chime in on the idea of loyalty. My dog is an absolute softie. Friendly, gentle and playful. But he is a coward too. If he and I were in a life or death situation, like say an animal attack, he would run away and leave me behind. Not only run away, but he would sigh in relief, knowing that whatever was chewing on me would be distracted long enough for him to escape. Compare that with my brother's cat. This cat hangs around him all day, follows him through the house, curls up next to him in bed and snarls at any other critter that gets close to my brother, including the dog.
I'd like also to talk about "protect properties". Some dogs and some races, sure... but I know dogs that would receive a thief with wagging tail, just hoping in some caress from this new friend.
That maybe true in that specific example, but for the most part the opposite holds true. Agreed. It depends entirely on the breed and the training. The point is however, that you can easily pick the correct breed and provide the correct training to achieve your desired effect. You simply can't do that with a cat.
My dog barks at everyone passing by, my cat hunts rabbits and brings them back to the house mostly in tact. Both would be pretty useful in a post apocalyptic world.
A cat has no real loyalty. They would be nearly useless in a post apocalyptic world. A dog on the other hand would be a huge help (depending on the breed of course, I'm not talking about a toy dog breed). A purse dog would be just as useless.
Cats and even some breeds of small dogs would be useful, in the case of food storage, rat and mouse killing animals such as cats or miniature pincers would be well worth it. And while the cat may not have the same loyalty a dog does, it does have territory. Hunting and bringing rabbits back to that territory is useful, especially if that's your territoey as well. Not all cats can hunt rabbits though. And not all dogs are useful, even as alarms. So I still won't pick between the two.