But seriously what is it with nerds and cats?

[Arrrgh]

The simple solution is that OP is simply defective and missing the mental apparatus with which one appreciates cats. This whole thread is people trying to explain what's appealing about the color red to a blind man.

[Sjofn]

Fish fall in my "prisoner" definition of pets. It's not there willingly, it's been captured or grown in captivity and kept against its will. If you set it in a suitable body of water, it's not coming back. Anything kept in a cage (or tank) is not a pet. Amnesty for imprisoned pets!

Where do rabbits fall on this scale? We kept ours in a cage most of the time, but that wasn't where she spent her entire life, we'd let her run around like a crackrabbit whenever we were playing on the console and/or watching a movie (she would've torn apart every cable in the computer room, so she was Not Allowed in there). My sister's rabbit basically has the run of the house, only going into his cage when no one is home (much like how some people crate their dogs). If they had gotten out, they probably weren't coming back, but I sometimes suspect the same would be true for our cat Lizzie.

Rabbits are good pets, dammit.


As for cats, they are a billion times easier to take care of than a dog. And they're cute! Why wouldn't you take pictures of them? If I wasn't so fucking lazy, I'd have a lot more pictures of ours. 

[Fabricated]

I can get that too. Outside of again, geriatrics the people I know who're obsessed with their cats refer to them like people instead of children. Whereas I've met people who treat their dogs like surrogate children; especially in childless marriages/relationships. I don't see that with cats a lot.

Mainly because cats aren't like children. They're independent, they mostly take care of themselves, they're highly affectionate some of the time (unless you're an asshole and mistreat them, in which case, kindly sail down the river twice, tia), they're not judgemental and they're cute and fluffy.

I just seriously didn't get it.

Just like I don't really get the reason for this thread even existing. Is this a troll thread?

____________________/


Anyway, I asked the question without snark and said everything else with snark. Figured that'd go over a bit better but I guess cats are literally serious business!!

The consistent answer about the job thing really makes sense though. More technical jobs tend to be more urban than rural, cats tend to make better pets in urban environments.

Also rabbits make great pets when litter trained and actually won't run off. They have a natural compulsion to chew on stuff though.

As long as we're talking about things that get us all assed up, what the fuck is with this fascination with putting supernatural elements in classic literature like Pride and Prejudice with Zombies or fucking Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter? It's not fucking clever. It's shit. Surely you can think of something interesting to do with zombies. Shit, you don't even have to think too hard - it's not like zombie "literature" is full of examples of great art. At least come up with your own fucking setting and characters instead of cribbing Jane Fucking Austen.

It's the current trend in nerd/college age humor where you take mundane things and apply whatever nerds are obsessing over currently to it in an "ironic" fashion. Like say, the zombie apocalypse.

[ghost]

I hate them as pets stemming from when I was about 8 and our cat pissed in my fishtank and killed all of my fish. Also destroying a lot of furniture despite owning scratching posts.

While that sucks that your cat did that, hating all cats because of it is kind of like reading a DLRiley post and deciding that all humans are morons who can't construct a complete sentence.

That sounds like a perfectly rational reason to hate all cats.

  My big thing with cats is really just that I'm highly, highly allergic to them.  They're just like dogs in that some of them are pretty cool and some of them suck. 

[Ingmar]

How much you handle them as kittens and at what age they're fixed (if at all) have huge impacts on their adult behavior, but even with that yeah, some cats are just assholes. Gender matters to an extent too.

[Paelos]

So are you supposed to handle them less?

I've had male cats in our family and they seem to have more personality than the females.

[Ingmar]

So are you supposed to handle them less?

I've had male cats in our family and they seem to have more personality than the females.

On the contrary handle them as much as possible when they're kittens and they'll be more friendly as adults. You don't want to wait until they're too old to get them fixed, either, especially with males - there's a window just before they hit cat puberty that is ideal, if you do it too early it messes with their growth, but if you do it too late they will develop undesirable behaviors, especially males.

And yeah male cats tend to be less standoffish than females.

[tgr]

How much you handle them as kittens and at what age they're fixed (if at all) have huge impacts on their adult behavior, but even with that yeah, some cats are just assholes. Gender matters to an extent too.

The last cat I got was 1 year old, and I had to actually trap her when fetching her at the relocation center, and she hid under my bed for 2 straight days after I got her home. It's taken 5+ years, but she's changed quite dramatically since then. I actually think I've managed to mostly reverse the negative traits she got from her childhood (which I can only presume hasn't been one of the better starts to life, ever).

Main problem I have with them now, though, is that they only ever really see me, so whenever I have them stay at my parents', it takes them up to a week to stop being sulky.

[Sjofn]

Our boy cat is a gigantic wussypants. He loves me and Ingmar to pieces (he is borderline dog-like in his devotion), but anyone else, if they are lucky, will get hissed at before he runs like the devil himself was coming for him. Most of the time he doesn't even bother with the hiss, as that takes up precious "running the fuck away" time. The lady cat is braver, but bitchier. She has a note on her vet's file: short fuse. She's my personal therapy cat, though. 

[WindupAtheist]

On the contrary handle them as much as possible when they're kittens and they'll be more friendly as adults.

By the same token, raise one around a 2 year old and they'll be so used to getting picked up and flopped around like a sack of flour that they'll be utterly unflappable as an adult. Well, at least in this one case in particular. To this day you can pick her up and flip her upside down and she'll just look bored. Still has her claws, too.

[Hawkbit]

Yep, my niece has developmental disabilites and when she was a child they got her a cat.  She could flop that thing around like a ragdoll, cradle it like a baby... just about anything she wanted.  That cat would just lay there all bored-like.

[tgr]

Still has her claws, too.

A cat without claws is not much of a cat.

[Sheepherder]

Some neighbours had a fatass cat, a child with Downes syndrome and a Rotweiler.  The dog would carry the cat around by the scruff of the neck, and the cat more or less didn't give a fuck.  I'm pretty sure it preferred the dog to the kid.

My sister's (then) kitten used to nap with his head laying on the chest of our Newfoundlander.  The Newfoundlander used to wake up, realize the kitten was there, and continue to lie there so as to avoid disturbing him.  Then the kitten grew up a little and would try to spar with the dog as if it were a litter mate.  I'm not sure whether the dog or the cat was more confused.

[Lantyssa]

Our dogs and cats got along just fine since the cats trained them as puppies.  The stray we took in years later took a lot of adjustment, but she was around a year old at that point.  The dogs still remembered the cats though, so they didn't have a problem with her.

[UnSub]

Cats are fucking terrible pets IMO but I am not being snarky when I ask; what the fuck is it with nerds and cats?

Question answered?

[Paelos]

My sister's 8 pound shorthair tabby likes to get on the back of the 50 pound lab and dry hump her. It's quite hilarous looking because the lab has no idea what's going on and just lays there bored. So you have this tiny little cat humping the dog while the rest of us ROFL.

[Sand]

I considered the "Cat owning nerd" thing kind of a stereotype until I got a job in IT and literally every single person in that extended circle of people I met minus maybe 2-3 people were "that guy". I just seriously didn't get it.

Did they all claim to have Asperger Syndrome as well? Cause that would be 

[Sjofn]

My sister's (then) kitten used to nap with his head laying on the chest of our Newfoundlander.  The Newfoundlander used to wake up, realize the kitten was there, and continue to lie there so as to avoid disturbing him.  Then the kitten grew up a little and would try to spar with the dog as if it were a litter mate.  I'm not sure whether the dog or the cat was more confused.

  Newfies 

I just wish they didn't drool so dang much.

[Samwise]

My mom's cat spars with her Newfie all the time; he'll go into Psycho Kitty Mode and just jump on the dog's head for no reason, start batting his tail around, meowing at him obnoxiously, anything to provoke a response.  It's pretty awesome.  I managed to get one of their interactions on camera just the other night.

[Ingmar]

I think that is the most aggressive thing I have ever seen a Newf do!

[01101010]

Jesus Christ that is not a newfie, that is a god damn black bear...that barks. 

And what the hell game is that on the screen?

[Samwise]

He's a very nice dog, but the cat has had years of practice at pushing his buttons.  Before I started recording, the cat had initiated hostilities by pouncing on the dog's head and then getting chased around the room, so the dog was already expecting a follow-up attack.

The game on the screen is Prototype.

[Sjofn]

Xerxes is a good name.

[Fabricated]

Cats are fucking terrible pets IMO but I am not being snarky when I ask; what the fuck is it with nerds and cats?

Question answered?

Pretty much!

I considered the "Cat owning nerd" thing kind of a stereotype until I got a job in IT and literally every single person in that extended circle of people I met minus maybe 2-3 people were "that guy". I just seriously didn't get it.

Did they all claim to have Asperger Syndrome as well? Cause that would be 

One guy I am actually really wondering if he has Aspergers.

[Muffled]

Dogs are also popular among needy extroverts who have to have everyone's attention.. while we're painting with barn brushes.

Don't be so defensive.  I'm too lazy even to own a turtle. 

_{Wheeeee two and a half pages too late.}

[Fraeg]

might come to you as a shocker but the love of cats extends a bit beyond nerd culture.

There was a time and a place call ancient egypt, and I think that slightly predates the term *nerd*.

[Engels]

ptolomey, total nerd.

[Trippy]

Library of Alexandria - nerd paradise.

[Teleku]

Guess that makes the Romans the Jocks.

[Azazel]

2 Awesome Posts

 

[Sir T]

I cant own pets as I'd be terrified in case I'd let them starve to death if i went into one of my black phases. Seriously.

I feel I'm not capable of the emotional commitmenta Dog needs. They love me to bits though as I understand them a great deal and can read their body language.

Cats love me too, as it happens. I remember staying at a house with a big mean cat and within 2 days it was curled up at my chest purring like it was the first purr it had done in its life. I remember one time I was visiting and internet friend for the first time, I flopped on the bed after the long journey and the housecat walked in, hopped on the bed, climbed over me, literally curled up in my armpit and fell asleep just like that.

I recently got 2 plants and they they are flourishing, despite every other plant I've ever had turning black and dying. I think I'm improving in terms of care...

[Hawkbit]

Not recommending it to you outright, but a cat won't let you neglect it once you have a bond with it.  Dogs are stupid about routine, so I would never recommend it for someone who varies their personality around.  But cats handle that a lot better.  Your daily time commitment is very small with a cat - water, food, litter box.  Maybe five minutes maximum. 

[tgr]

Just like Farmville.

[Ingmar]

Not recommending it to you outright, but a cat won't let you neglect it once you have a bond with it.  Dogs are stupid about routine, so I would never recommend it for someone who varies their personality around.  But cats handle that a lot better.  Your daily time commitment is very small with a cat - water, food, litter box.  Maybe five minutes maximum. 

Yeah, cats will let you know EXCUSE ME SIR IT IS TIME TO EAT. You really don't want the HEY ASSHOLE YOU DIDN'T CHANGE MY LITTER YET reminder though.

[Sjofn]

What's a little protest poop between friends?