For long as the human race has been bringing pets into their caves and homes, there has surely been considerable debate as to the virtue of cats versus dogs. And, just as dogs are so frequently bewildered by the feline species, so are we humans. A small percentage of us might indicate we love both dogs and cats, but most tend to side with one or the other.

 “I’m a dog lover. Cats? Stacking greased pool balls with boxing gloves would be easier to accomplish than figuring out a feline.”  Such comments by the dog folks are often contradicted by those waving the cat banner. “Little fluffy brings laughter and joy to our home every single day.”

Great minds are often divided on the matter. Such noteworthy thinkers as Albert Schweitzer and Sigmund Freud have talked about what millions of cat lovers believe. Schweitzer said, “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” While Freud rather simply explained, “Time spent with cats is never wasted.”

Meanwhile, popular author and illustrator Skip Morrow rode the anti-cat theme all the way to ‘international best-selling status’ when in 1980 he took a satirical look at the dark side of the timeless love-hate story of humans and cats. The Official I Hate Cats Book was so successful he revisited the theme in 2000 with I Still Hate Cats. Shortly after Morrow first started making fun of cats in his illustrations, he described the effect these drawings had, “When people saw it, they told me: ‘I’ve always wanted to do that to a cat.’ I thought that I might be onto something, so I drew a series of cats being compromised.”

The good news for us photographers is you do not have to pick a side. There is simply no debating the fact that, love ’em or hate ’em, cats are fun to shoot. Shoot with a camera (for those of you that were getting other ideas)!

Our daughter and son-in-law, Amanda and Stephen Bradner, recently let me tag along with them to the Phoenix Feline Association’s 19th Annual All Breed Cat Show. Amanda and Stephen ended up with an unbelievably cute kitten out of the trip, and I ended up with some fun pictures and a lot of photo-remedy.

New Bradner Cat - Killarney

I’ve posted a Picasa album that features the top ten ‘Best of Show’ cats, along with some of my personal favorites. The album features my commentary, but please feel free to leave yours as well.

The comments don’t have to all be positive. Making fun of cats–even when you love them like our family does–is always in good taste. Well, accept when talking about the little guy pictured to the right. I was delighted I was able to capture him when he appeared to be praying for a blue ribbon. How can you not love a cat like that!

– Greg