Essential Question

I've not been doing a whole lot this afternoon, but reading and watching Earl chew on his feet, then his legs, then his belly, then clean his belly, legs and feet then passing out for a quick nap before repeating.  This led me to question whether or not Earl could actually be some kind of cat.

Characteristics that make me think Earl could be some kind of cat:

• he spends a lot of time cleaning himself
• he's partial to dairy products
• his tail looks like a cat's
• he looks like a hyena
• his cry is decidedly not dog like

Characteristics that make me think Earl is just a dog:

• his sister, Randi, is clearly a dog
• his license says dog
• he doesn't like cats
• he couldn't care less about birds
• he's got a deep bark

Unable to determine Earl's cat or dogness from this list, I Googled "Could my dog be a cat," "Can dogs be part cat" and "Do cats smoke pot" because while Sara said her cat, Scout, doesn't smoke pot, she wasn't sure about other cats.  Google did not return any type of useful information on this question.  I am back to I am going to need to collect a dna swab from Earl to determine what the heck he is.