Cats Are Mean/Playing With

Basic Trope: Cats are presented as evil or mean, especially compared to dogs.
 * Straight: Sneaky, manipulative Alex the Cat constantly causes trouble to the simple-minded Bob the Dog for no apparent reason.
 * Exaggerated:
 * The cats are all Complete Monsters and start a program whereby mice are systematically tortured and enslaved.
 * Alternatively: the author combines this with Godwins Law and portrays cats as Nazis.
 * Downplayed: Alex is a Jerkass, but not outright mean.
 * Justified: Alex is just misunderstood: he does like Bob, but gets unpleasant when his private sphere is invaded, which Bob does all the time.
 * Inverted:
 * Cats are universally presented as caring and understanding animals, while dogs are generally annoying, territorial, short-tempered, and noisy.
 * Even better: Cats being portrayed as victims of meanies.
 * Subverted: All cats Charlie the Pet Owner has previously owned have been nasty to him, but Doris the Cat turns out to be a peaceful and loving creature.
 * Double Subverted: ...until he also gets himself a dog, failing to notice that THAT was what pissed all his previous cats off.
 * Parodied: Alex constantly tries to tick off Bob, but he is so naive and simple-minded that he thinks Alex just wants to be friends.
 * Deconstructed:
 * Because of the basic assumption that Cats Are Mean, nobody wants them as pets and the poor things die in scores during winter. And in the summer, all supplies in town is destroyed by vermin. Nice job breaking it, racists.
 * Alternatively: cats are mean to everyone precisely because of constant persecution. Everyone is mean to them, they are merely defending themselves. If only there was someone in the world who'd like to be their friend...
 * Reconstructed:
 * Alex the Cat is presented as a Magnificent Bastard, who makes up for his nastiness with sheer awesome.
 * Evil isn't mean, and mean isn't evil. So each and every cat is either Affably Evil or Chaotic Good, depending on whether he or she really is evil or just a jerk.
 * Zig Zagged: Cats seem to have Tsundere as a species trait.
 * Averted: Cats are not depicted as any nastier and meaner than any other animals.
 * Enforced: The producer is a dog owner, so he forced the writers to give all heroic roles to dogs, whereas cats were given all the evil roles.
 * Lampshaded: "Who cares that I am being nasty to everyone 90% of the time if I can cure headaches by purring?"
 * Invoked: Alex is generally a nice kitty, but he deliberately acts up because Chalie doesn't pay attention to him.
 * Defied: "Stop insulting me already - please. Cats are not universally evil, why do you even think that?!"
 * Discussed: "I dislike cats, they're all mean." "What will you say next - that All Germans Are Nazis?"
 * Conversed: "That's one of those shows written by people who never owned a cat."

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