dogs have masters; cats have staff

According to [Jeffrey Moussaieff] Masson, cats are innately spiritual (“There does seem to be a Zen of cats”), their psychological lives are complicated, and we humans had better be aware of the immutable fact that “dogs have masters; cats have staff.”

2002 December 7, Margaret Gunning, “Three new books explore the feline mystique”, in The Gazette, Montreal, Que., →ISSN, page H7, columns 5–6

She lives in Brookeville, Maryland, with her husband and two cats who live by the adage “Dogs have masters; cats have staff!”

2009, “2010 Author Biographies”, in Ardis Stenbakken, editor, Sanctuary: Finding Sanctuary for the Soul in the Presence of God (The Women’s Devotional Series; 18), Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald® Publishing Association, →ISBN, page 392

If I could divide the world into two nice, neat camps, it’d look like this: Dog People and Other. Some sage put it this way: “Dogs have masters; cats have staff.” That sums it up pretty well, huh?

2009, Kristine Lowder, “Eve”, in How I Got to Be 50 and Other Atrocities: A Baby Boomer Reflects on the Boom and Other Splashes of Everyday Life, Warrens, Wis.: Living Stones Fellowship International, →ISBN, section “Faith”, page 139

As the joke goes, a dog looks at all the things we provide for it and thinks, You must be God. A cat looks at all the things we provide for it and thinks, I must be God. Here’s another favorite: “Dogs have masters; cats have staff.”

2013, Mieshelle Nagelschneider, “Life on the Wild Side—Where Even the Tamest Cats Live”, in The Cat Whisperer: Why Cats Do What They Do—and How to Get Them to Do What You Want, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 53

Like Deloris’s conversations, the writings often incorporated what she had heard on television. […] Dogs have masters; cats have staff.

2014, Allan Ament, “Negotiating the Rapids”, in Learning to Float: Memoir of a Caregiver-Husband, Seattle, Wash.: Booktrope Editions, →ISBN, pages 60–61