pirates. They are real, people. 

But on the other hand, so are ninjas.  

Ummmmmmmmmmmm. What do you mean? Both were real, but have died out. Pirates might not have.

John Hancock was a sort of a pirate! (sorry: random facts from history class)

DOGS!!

Waddaya mean, I need more proof than that? It comes down to my personal expirience. This is a scary, and true story.

Icy was walking her tiny, adorable, yet ferocious, yet cuddly and kind, yet playful, dog down the sidewalk. She gazed ahead, and stepped forward. Until, in the yard of the blue house, she saw a dog, simply lying, peaceful, under a tree. She was two steps away from it. And then she saw the mange, the color, the body shape, and knew that it wasn't a dog. She had never been this close to one, but she knew. It was one of the things that howled in her neighborhood, if you stayed up late enough to hear it resounding from the nearby prairie.

It was a coyote, and she was two steps away from it. She stared, and her dog, normally playful with other dogs, was still, just standing there, staring at the Coyote. And the Coyote stared back, with calm eyes. And all Icy could do was start crying. And then, after minutes of standing there crying, petrified, she turned, and ran.

Ran, all the way home. (Later, she would wonder how her dog was smart enough to differentiate between Coyotes and normal dogs.) She burst upstairs and, breathless, sobbed and told her story. Her dad took her out for a drive nearby, to see it from a window, after she had begged. (He also was driving slow in the neighborhood and playing Pokemon Go in the car.)

It was still lying there. They got close, and saw it, and then..it moved. It had a limp, a leg in the back, and a paw in the front. It was hurt, but not visibly other than the limp. That was why it was out, away from the prairie (they did venture away--once we saw one just strolling down the sidewalk--but never during the day like I saw it.). They called Animal Control, hoping that they could save the poor thing, and then--

"Coyotes are hard to catch. We've only caught a dozen in about the last 25 years. They're also resilient, and can survive in the wild, even with a bad limp like that, and it will live naturally." So there you go. Animal Control aproved. As for cats--unless they're lepoards and jaguars, I would NEVER rate them under dogs. My dog, although small, could definitely hunt and survive in the wild. Not to say that cats couldn't, though.

Cats are more equipped to survive in the wild for the following reasons:

1.) Cats are less dependant upon humans to survive. When you have a cat, you just need to buy food, water, a scratching post... and it will take care of itself. Just a bit of love, and voila! A perfect pet. Dogs, on the other hand, need you to pick up their litter constantly, and you need to walk them every single morning... how would they survive without your love? They would mope around 'till the day they die. Cats are more "lonely" creatures, the reason why they are the ideal pet for authors. Authors need to devote more time to writing stories, and can't take the time to give a dog all the love it needs, and a cat can just take care of itself much, much better. It can catch its own food, birds, mice, fish... while dogs need you to give their their dog food. Have you ever heard of a dog in the wild catching fish and spitting out the bones? Probably not, unless it's Superdog. Cats? You don't need to be Supercat to be able to catch a fish and spit out the bones.

2.) Cats are more agile and warrior-like, the exact reason Erin Hunter used them for her "Warriors" book. Sure, she wrote about dogs, too, but they weren't 'warriors' like cats were, and they aren't as popular, because cats being warriors and suriving out in the wild is just more realistic. Definitely more realistic. Cats crouch low on the ground in a tree, waiting for prey to come their way. Dogs are more clumsy, and they can't exactly climb trees. I mean, some can, but those some are more examples of "Superdog!" That's why cats, the smart creatures, escape by climbing trees, knowing that their agility can save their lives. The pounce quickly, snatching birds out of the air, therefore being able to eat and survive out in the wild. 

3.) Cats are less prone to diseases like rabies, which are more common to dogs. Cats have longer lives, the average life span of a cat being 21 years, and a dog being only 10-13 years. That's just because cats don't get sick as much. In books, it's usually the dog who gets sick or old and dies, like in Wonder. But cats don't. Crookshanks? Healthy as ever! And they are tough! In Plain Kate, *Spoiler Alert* Taggle dies, but does so heroicaly, and at the end still comes back to life and lives, because cats just battle on bravely. Something as trivial as death could never stop him!*Spoiler Ends* And his siblings, Raggle and Bone? Kings and Queens of the cats! All three survived against all odds. Bet a dog couldn't do that, huh? As for real life, the percentage of sick dogs with rabies and stuff like that are much more than cats, even wild cats and wild dogs. 

So those are my three reasons why cats would survive in the wild much better than dogs.