Are Cats the New Dogs?

Whether you're on team 

 or team 

 (or both!), you have to admit -- cats are having a moment.Common knowledge holds that Americans prefer dogs to cats, and a recent poll by

supports that assertion, but the Internet tells a different story. While absolute search volume remains higher for dogs than cats (550,000 vs 450,000 monthly searches via Google AdWords), everything cat, cat meme, adorable cat is... exploding. Even dogs are opening up to cat mania as exemplified in BuzzFeed's

.

, especially dominating social media, with at least

poised to usurp Grumpy Cat's status as top dog -- er, cat.

has almost 1.5 million Facebook followers, and a manager.Cats have reached iconic status in the fashion world. Beyond the leopard and other wildcat prints that are always in fashion one way or the other, in the last two years cats have appeared on sweaters and other items from

, 

, and

. Vogue recently published a

.Cats as pop cultural phenomenon have become so widespread, viral videos like below which suggest cats are the true secret to all marketing, are only half-kidding.

According to Friskies,

.Given all of that, is it fair to say cats are the new dogs? Or will this cat-centric trend pass, being replaced by meme-ready dog personalities? We'd love to hear from you in the comments!