There’s nothing creepier than…the Cat People!

Updated on October 1, 2009 By Ken Begg 12 Comments

Hollywood tough guy Joe Mantegna opted to do a celebrity interview for the Oct 2009 issue of Cat Fancy.  That’s a man who’s comfortable with his sexuality.  The two page puff piece is entitled “Feline Minds,” I guess because Mantegna currently stars in the CBS TV show Criminal Minds.  Is that even a pun?  Is mere word substitution now officially considered a joke in some way?

As more of a dog person (although I generally have nothing against cats, other than that they are crazy–I laughed for like five minutes straight during a MST3K episode when a guy is suddenly attacked by a monster feline and Mike replies something like, “Oh, so it’s just a normal cat, then?”), I have always been mystified at the way cat lovers feel the need to assert that cats are not only not as disgustingly pliable as dogs, but in fact superior beings to their owners.  Mantegna is not adverse to this line of thinking:

CF:  What is your favorite thing to do with your cats?

Sane Answer:  Since when does anyone ‘do’ things with their cats?

Actual Mantegna Answer:  “I have you have to ask the cats what they are their favorite things to do with you.  They make that choice.  My favorite thing is to be awarded the invitation to be allowed to hang with them and them come up to me when they are ready for a little attention.  It’s their world; I just live in it.”

And pay for it, of course.

He also has dogs, but admits (surprise) “If I am really honest, I would say I am more of a cat person.”  Mantegna also has an autistic daughter, and muses this makes her like a cat.  “I often say that when you are autistic, it is like being a cat in a world of dogs.”

How true.  How true.

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  • Ericb

    I don’t know, I’ve got two cats and they are very affectionate, follow me around the apartment like dogs and are always waiting for me at the door when I come home from work. It’s like apples and oranges really. I prefer cats because they require slighlty less maintanence than dogs and seem to be able to amuse themselves when I’m at work. I really think it just comes down to brain wiring. Dogs, like, humans, live in groups with relatively complex social hierarchies so their behavior is geared to pleasing those who are higher on the social pecking order (or dominating those of a lower rank). Cats, on the other hand, while they can form social groups as strays in human created environments, are generally solitary so they haven’t evolved as large a bag of communication tools woth which to communicat with humans. I read somewhere that as a basic rule of thuub a dog treats it’s owner like a pack leader while a cat will treat it’s owner either as a kitten or its mother depending on the situation.

  • P Stroud

    The difference between cat people and dog people: Tell a dog person you don’t like dogs and they usually say, “Yeah whatever. Sorry ’bout that.” Tell a cat person that you don’t like cats and you get a sermon. Heck just tell a cat person that you don’t dislike cats but like dogs better and you still get the sermon.

  • Ericb

    Huh, whatever. I think this whole “cat person” vs. “dog person” dicotomy is a bunch of nonsense. I happen to like cats (not that I like them more or less than dogs) and that tells you almost nothing about my personality.

  • BUT you are no doubt well aware that many cat people DO think it reflects on their personality. Look, I don’t owe cats or dogs anything. I owned a cat for years growing up and would probably have called myself a cat person. Plus HP Lovecraft wrote a whole essay about how he loved cats (dogs were too “teutonic”). But I have not owned a cat for years, and DO own a small mongrel dog, which I like a lot.

    I think it’s safe to say that it is fair to say that cats are psychotic (indeed, their unpredictgability is one of the attractions), and not all cats are affectionate. Dogs are eminently predictable, but that really is part of their charm as well.

    But then what do I know? I kept ferrets for years, and there is no earthly excuse for it.

  • GalaxyJane

    I think my preference for cats is purely due to the low-maintenance angle. I’m too lazy and self-centered to own an animal that needs walking and I like to go out of town on the drop of a hat. Anything up to a weekend, all I have to do is put out an extra-large bowl of food and a clean litterbox.

    I do get frustrated with people (read: family members) that believe all invitations must include their dogs, since they can’t be left alone, and will turn up on the doorstep with said animal companions without asking first. They then get offended when I ask them to not do so again as my home is full of kids and cats and has no safe, happy, fenced-in place for large drooling beasts with inadequate self-control.

    Yeah, still a touch bitter about my sister’s last visit, I guess :-)

  • Ericb

    Ok, cats are sociopaths, dogs are sycophants.

  • Tork_110

    You can too ‘do’ things with cats! Why, you can record them lying around and put it up on youtube, smart pants!

  • But then what do I know? I kept ferrets for years, and there is no earthly excuse for it.

    Ha, but wait until you and your ferret are trapped in a big paper bag, and he’s the only chance you have to escape…oh. Wait. Never mind.

  • I want you to know that I GAVE our ferret the “paper bag” test. And, eventually, it did escape. Though it was helped by my granddaughter pounding on one corner of the bag and partly opening it up.

    I must say if there is an animal more incompetent than the ferret I have yet to encounter it. Maybe pandas.

  • Ericb

    My college roomate had a pet hermit crab. It was kind of like having a rock for a pet.

  • sandra

    Check out “An Engineer’s Guide To Cats” on Youtube. Mantegna is comfortable with his sexuality because he admits to liking cats? So if you’re a mn, loving cats automatically makes you gay? My husband would have disagreed.

  • I’d say the picture and the public admission that he lives in thrall to his cats does indicate a considerable comfort level with his female side, in not making him gay, yes.