I agree that dogs rule (and drool), Bruce. But cats rule too ...
My Siamese queen not only had three litters of exquisite, super-smart kittens - she can turn faucets on and off to give herself a drink, she opens lever doors (both pushing and pulling) even though she's too short to reach from the floor and has to leap onto the lever and use her body weight to move it, after which she leaps down and pushes or pulls the door open; and she hears me coming down the hall in my apartment building and is calling before I put the key in the door (no, she doesn't do this for other people in the hall). She isn't big enough to carry laundry, but she sits on my lap and touches my face gently with her paw while gazing into my eyes.
Seriously.
She's a queen and she rules.
(I have also had a wonderful chocolate Lab who was the sweetest, dumbest dog in the world; she answered to any name you cared to call her, couldn't find her way out from under a blanket, never learned to retrieve - and we all loved her dearly to the day she died ... still miss her. RIP, Molly.)