Can Cats and Dogs Ever Get Along?

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is a dog trainer. She uses positive methods that avoid punishment, violence and intimidation. She focuses on building a good relationship between dogs and humans.

The phrase ‘they fight like cats and dogs’ is universally known. So much so that people who have never owned a pet think that housing both species under one roof is a one-way ticket to tragedy, bloodshed, or a swift renovation of the apartment. In this case, a popular saying resulting from over-simplification and snap judgements is quite unfair to these two animals, and presents a slightly distorted image of their world.

A cat is not necessarily the same thing to a dog that a mouse is to a cat. Dogs don’t eat cats – they chase cats as a result of their hunting instincts. Dogs chase any targets moving away from them, because such behaviour is determined by their DNA. This happens more in some breeds than in others, but all dogs love to pursue moving objects, and we shouldn’t ever forget that. This is not caused by an urge to exterminate a particular species, but simply because a cat is an attractive prize

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Aleksandra Galewska:

is a dog trainer. She uses positive methods that avoid punishment, violence and intimidation. She focuses on building a good relationship between dogs and humans.

Translation: Joanna Figiel

Publish date: 23.11.2019

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Agnieszka Drotkiewicz:

is a writer. She has published several novels (“Paris London Dachau”, “Dla mnie to samo”, “Teraz”, “Nieszpory”) and collected interviews (two conducted along with Anna Dziewit: “Głośniej! Rozmowy z pisarkami” and “Teoria trutnia i inne”; and two by herself: “Jeszcze dzisiaj nie usiadłam” and “Piano rysuje sufit”). Agnieszka also published “Dusza światowa” – an extended interview with Dorota Masłowska. Together with Ewa Kuryluk, she wrote a book in the form of a conversation (“Manhattan i Mała Wenecja”), for which they received the Warsaw Literary Premiere Award.

A gifted painter; a resourceful mother who left an unsuccessful marriage and raised her daughters on her own; a scholar who at the age of 53, 100 years before Darwin, travelled to the end of the world and proved that what Aristotle wrote about the life of insects was absolute nonsense.

The year is 1700, Suriname, South America. The lush green of manioc fields, the exuberant vegetation, the fruits of bright colours and intense tastes. It’s hot and humid. The Surinamese rainforest – allied with its mysterious universe of insects, with its thick scramble of trees and bushes – guards most of these Dutch territories like a strong fortification. Anyone who wanders into the middle of this forest risks getting caught in an inescapable trap.

Can Cats and Dogs Ever Get Along?

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