"Dogs have masters," my ex-girlfriend Erica, a cat owner, used to say. "Cats have staff."

If dogs could write poetry, they'd write stuff like this:
You're my best friend
You're my best friend
You're my best friend
Is it dinner yet?
Or this gem:
Are you gonna eat that?
Are you gonna eat that?
Are you gonna eat that?
I think I'll eat that.
Cats, on the other hand, would this poesy of this variety:
I hate you.
Now feed me.
To many people, and in this case when I say "people", I mean "lonely, bitter shut-ins", cats are ideal, independent low-maintenance companions. To me, cats are The Other White Meat.

In spite of this, Boss Ross and I have declared -- for no other reason than for the hell of it, we swear -- that Friday is the First Annual Post a Picture of a Cat to Your Blog day.

Personally, I think that pictures of cats should be perceived as damage by the Internet and should be routed around. However, the vast majority of Internet people seem to like cats, especially those who write weblogs. Weblogging is so associated with cat pictures that O'Reilly and Associates, publishers of computer books with woodcuttings of animals on the covers, saw fit to put a picture of cats on their book on blogging:

Photo: Cover of O'Reilly's 'Essential Blogging'.

So don't forget, folks: post a picture of a cat to your blog this Friday!

(You don't have post a cutesy one either. Feel free to go all Lee Harvey Oswald if you like.)

Recommended Reading

My unexpectedly pleasant conversation with John C. Dvorak. Dvorak's response to my saying that the choice of cat for cover animal on O'Reilly's book was all his fault. (Okay, it's really in response to me calling him PC Magazine's "Resident Asshole".)