Dogs are just awesome. They are intelligent, you can teach them things, they will fetch stuff for you, they will want to play with you, they fit into the social hierarchy of a human family, and they can protect you and/or warn you from danger. They make for excellent companions.
Cats just do whatever the f they want. They will knock things over just to screw with you. They live in their own world and expect the world to revolve around them. They are for the most part drama queens.
Okay, CFC's resident Cat Lady weighing in here...
First of all, I was a dog lover for many years, and there was a time in my life when I didn't like cats AT ALL. I couldn't imagine having a cat. I barely tolerated the cat that lived with my dad's girlfriend's family (where I was forced to live for 2 years). I couldn't figure out why that cat liked me... until it was pointed out that I was the only person there who never bothered him, disturbed his naps, or was mean to him. I tried to pretend he didn't exist.
I regret that now, a great deal. Joey was a very nice cat, and I missed out on a wonderful opportunity to get to know and love him. At the time, I was missing my dog terribly, because I wasn't allowed to bring her with me.
Cats are intelligent. You can teach them things. They will fetch (my dad's cat often woke him up in the middle of the night to play "fetch"). They fit into the hierarchy of a human family, but not in the same way a dog does. With dogs, you have to understand the pack mentality. With cats, it's the pride mentality.
For many years we had both cats and dogs (4 cats, 2 dogs). They figured out their own hierarchy and how they related to each other and to the humans. There was never any acrimony between the dogs and cats. The cats sometimes had issues among each other, but never anything unmanageable.
My cats saved my life, when I nearly froze one extremely frigid November night when the furnace quit. They kept me warm, sharing body heat.
As for warning of danger? I pay attention to my cats' body language and any unusual vocalizations/actions. Learn what the positions of their ears and tail mean - it's an amazing amount of information.
And yes, they make excellent companions. Some cats are very talkative and sociable - Cassandra was like that. She'd sit down in front of my grandfather, and tell him a long story about something. She wasn't demanding food or petting, nor was she complaining. She was
talking to him. This would go on for sometimes 5 minutes at a time. Tomtat was also very sociable. He and I would carry on a conversation in catspeak, and it seemed to mean something to him. I was never really sure what we were talking about and he didn't mind my atrocious accent, but it was definitely a companionable time between us.
I wonder how many people talk to their cats as they would to humans? I've always done that. I think it's why I've been able to teach them and why they are sociable.
That said, I have never been able to break Maddy of the idea that my stuff is not her stuff, and it doesn't belong on the floor. And no, I will not shoot her with a water sprayer.
I don't like cats, but I don't hate them either.
What I do hate are the jackasses who feed feral cats - even when you point blank tell them all of the food goes to the possums, raccoons and muskrats that long ago chased off the damn cats. I really dislike feral cats, they are awful things that I don't think have a place in this world and only serve to drive bird species to the verge of extinction.
One sign that cats are less popular than dogs - you can find kittens for free ALL THE TIME. Puppies are almost never free except between family friends or in specific circumstances.
I caught and tamed a feral kitten. I never knew how he ended up in my back yard, but it was one of the coldest Octobers I can remember in my life (1993), and I could not make myself leave him to freeze or die of starvation. It took 3 weeks to catch him, all that time taking food and milk out to him several times a day and hoping he'd get some of it before the magpies stole it (or it froze).
Finally my dad and I caught him. I tamed him, socialized him, and carefully made sure he'd get along with the other cats. Gussy was one of the most loving cats I've ever been blessed with, and I still miss him terribly (he died nearly 6 years ago).
That's what sucks about the whole thing; it's a double edged sword(?), and in the current situation, the cons outweigh the pros by unimaginable proportions, with overpopulation and native species suffering unnecessarily to name a couple. 