Dogs and dudes: Opposites?

It occurred to me the other day that dogs take about as much time deciding where to poop as people do deciding what to eat. At least the dogs don't let all the cool air out of the refrigerator while they're thinking.

We think of dogs as our natural pals, whether we just chose to be that way or whether God provided them as our helper and companion, however you want to see it. Three legs in the animal kingdom and one leg in ours, as C. S. Lewis described them. But that one leg has made all the difference; unlike cats, which we all know tolerate captivity rather than crave humanity, dogs as we have come to know them do not do well in the wild. Most dumb house cats will live perfectly well as feral cats, although they will be a menace to everyone else; our dogs need us for survival. I suppose it's because cats are useful to us at the one thing that comes naturally -- killing vermin -- while dogs have been bred to do all kinds of wacky and specialized things that may not be useful in nature.

But my thought about the food/poop conundrum made me wonder if there are other things they do in an opposite way -- making dogs sort of Bizarro humans.

Here are some I thought of, starting with the one that sparked this idea:

🐶Dogs eat whatever is put before them; people take a ton of time to decide on dinner

🐶Dogs take a ton of time to decide where to poop; people use the nearest toilet

🐶Dogs nap all day; people are lucky to get one nap, and young people fight the idea like crazy

🐶Dogs are covered in hair and pay it no mind; people have relatively little hair and pay all kinds of attention to it

🐶Dogs love to run; most people do everything possible to avoid running

🐶Dogs object to baths; people generally enjoy them

🐶Dogs love powerful odors; people usually rear back from them

🐶Dogs hate fireworks; people like them

🐶Dogs love to pull on ropes; people try to avoid jobs that require this

You could easily make the argument based on these important facts that dogs and humans are opposites and thus incompatible -- or that opposites attract, and so dogs and humans complete each other. Or you could look at our mutual love of cheese and bacon, our dislike of going to doctors, and our interest in sports (hunting, Frisbee, tennis balls) and decide we're indistinguishable.

As with so many things in life, our lives and our collective life, sometimes it's hard to understand how we got here, wherever here is, except in the most general way. However we did, I'm glad we have our canine pals along for the ride.