Peter Davies, of Dapto, with his four-legged friends, cat Charlie and dog Odin. Picture: ORLANDO CHIODO
Charlie the kitten and Odin the puppy didn't choose to become housemates but they are trying to make the arrangement work.
Odin increasingly resists the urge to round up his energetic feline acquaintance. Charlie, for her part, seems to know to walk away from confrontation.
Their mostly harmonious existence is reflective of a new survey of attitudes to cats and dogs, showing almost 40 per cent of people consider them equally likeable.
The RSPCA's Cat-itude Survey, of more than 700 online respondents, is aimed at gauging attitudes to cats and will be used by the animal welfare group to encourage increased cat adoptions.
Cat ownership declined 20 per cent to 2.6 million between 1989 and 2000, while the dog population increased over the same period to 4 million.
Peter Davies, Odin's owner, said he hadn't planned on living with a cat but had come to like it.
"I like dogs and my girlfriend likes cats - if it was up to me, I'd probably just have a dog," said Mr Davies, of Dapto. "But it's fun to watch [the cat] play around the house, and she'll sit on you [when] watching TV."
According to the Cat-itude survey, 33.9 per cent of people consider themselves exclusively a "cat person", while almost 28 per cent identify as exclusively a "dog person".
Despite this, two-thirds of respondents thought Australia was a nation of dog favourers.
Dr Magdoline Awad, RSPCA NSW's chief veterinarian, suggested cat ownership could be on the rise as a result of modern living arrangements.
"With the urbanisation of our communities and statistics revealing that more people are living alone and in apartment complexes, we want to educate people that cats are excellent companion animals," she said.