There is always one icebreaker debate that tends to spread tension across the room– a debate that divides friends. That debate is: which is better, cats or dogs? I have always been asked this as an icebreaker in any high school “get to know you” debate. It has split up my friends and I have also  started slightly heated arguments in those classes. So I wanted to try and settle it. I asked around. 

I started by doing a poll on my floor of my dorm building to get the general census of the people I live around. Cats won and they didn’t just barely win. In fact, they won by a landslide. Cats more than double the votes given for dogs. So, my dorm floor believes that cats are the winner. 

Another thing I considered was those who have more than one pet at home. Mostly because I think that many are biased to the pet they have at home– I know that I certainly am. But some share a home with both types of furry friends. 

“No, it’s not tough to choose. Cats are the clear choice,” first year student Brooklyn Tarquado, who has both cats and dogs at home, said. 

However, when I had asked some friends from my First-Year Seminar last semester, they disagreed with Torquado. 

 “Dogs!” Will Gaskins immediately said.  Another former classmate of mine, Curtis Carvell, agreed.“Dogs are man’s best friend!” Carvell said.

Some of my other friends couldn’t give a clear cut answer. Kassidy Maenner said, “Cats and dogs. I’m indecisive.” Liz Wasylyk also said, “I also vote for cats and dogs.” She then said if she absolutely had to choose she would go with dogs because of her allergy to cats. 

I personally would have to vote for dogs because of my pet back home. I just know she would be upset if I said I liked cats more. Although I do agree that cats are great, like Wasylyk I also have a cat allergy. I do miss the few cats I had growing up before mostly having dogs. I also enjoy watching all the funny videos of cats overreacting on TikTok, but as I said before, I can’t let my dog down. She has my whole heart, and therefore my vote goes against the grain of some of my friends and most of my dorm floor. But, as Carvell said, “dogs are man’s best friend” and the right answer in my eyes.