It is 3 a.m. and a faithful owner’s sleep is interrupted as Biscuit the dog bangs on the bells attached to the front doorknob. Biscuit knows by now that his master will get up and let him out, as he does every other night, and Biscuit is right. Just when the owner begins to fall asleep again, Biscuit hears a leaf rustle across the street and breaks into a cacophony of howling, all under the guise of protecting his household.

Biscuit is quite the loyal companion.

Meanwhile, a cat owner sleeps peacefully with Felix curled up next to him. Hardly making a sound, Felix slips out from under the covers, jumps off the bed and lands silently on her feet. She pads down the hall to take care of her business, without disturbing a soul.

If quality sleep matters at all, that is reason enough to choose to adopt a cat over a dog. Even disregarding the unfortunate midnight chore in which dog owners must partake, cats are the obvious frontrunner in the age old pet debate.

Cats, with their mysterious and serene personality, have been worshipped for hundreds of years. Archeological evidence suggests that cats were domesticated in Mesopotamia in approximately 12000 BCE in order to control pests and mice attracted by the grain supply. 4,000 years ago in Egypt, the penalty for killing a cat was death. When cats died of natural causes they were mummified in a process similar to that of their human counterparts, and all the members of their household shaved their eyebrows in a symbol of mourning. At the time of their owners’ deaths, the cat and its family would be buried in proximity to each other.

CHS English teacher Dr. Rebecca Taylor, proud owner of her kitty, Nicodemus, is a self-professed lover of both dogs and cats alike. However, she could not envision herself living with a dog. “I sometimes see people walking down the road with a dog and I think, ‘how do you live with that animal?’”

Cats are smaller than many breeds of dog. Whether that means having to clean up less animal hair or ensuring an extra spot on the couch, size matters. And while the dog barrels over guests in excitement, a cat may decide to remain sleeping under the bed all day, leaving the house quiet and calm enough for work to take place and for company to come over.

Dogs, on the other hand, require constant entertainment. On top of the daily walks, dogs will beg to play fetch or tug-of-war, and a trip to the kennel will last as long as his owner wants to put up with his whining and barking.

A cat, on the other hand, pays attention to the needs and desires of her owners. If they are too busy to play, she will entertain herself by laying in the sun or batting a string, all without attracting any attention or annoyance from her owners. Cats’ independent personality can seem off-putting to some people, but that independence is what makes a cat such an interesting companion.

“People think cats are not friendly, but if you have the right cat, that’s not the case,” Taylor said. “They have a wide variety of temperaments.”

Inevitably, all pets misbehave. When a cat jumps on the kitchen table, a trip down to Target to purchase a two dollar water spritzer will solve the problem effectively. When a dog is disobedient, the owners had better invest in an expensive dog training program if they do not want the situation to worsen.

And when a pet owner wants to get away? A dog has be left at an animal hotel or under the care of a dedicated dog-lover who is happy to walk him several times a day. Cat owners need only to leave a few extra bowls of food and water, and they are ready to take off.

Cats also clean themselves and do not require haircuts, eliminating another costly and time-consuming chore for their owners.

Although having an allergy to a cat is more common than having one to a dog, there are many hypoallergenic breeds of cats. “For a long time … I thought I was allergic to cats, and I just didn’t think I could live with cats,” Taylor said. “And then I discovered that there are cats that are hypoallergenic.”

Still unconvinced? Let the numbers speak for themselves. According to the Humane Society, cat owners will spend an annual average of $38 less on routine veterinary visits. As of 2013, there were 12.3 million more cats owned nationwide than dogs. On Instagram, Lil Bub, a cat known for her iconic facial expressions, has over 675,000 followers. On Apple devices, the current cat to dog emoji ratio is 11 to three. Clearly, cats are by far the better pet to own.