I used to have a beagle as a child and they bay constantly when left alone. he was such a funny dog.. bullied by cats, he would often try and climb a tree after chasing the cat across the backyard.

i've got two cats, one thinks he is a dog (he will roll onto his side and wait for a belly scratch) and the other is DH's little girl. He went away for a week when she was only a few months old. The next day, she curled up on his lap and stayed there for 5 hours, she laid on her back and sucked his finger (I have a photo).. They are peas in a pod those two. The dogcat was rescued from a shed with 22 other cats, he is such a gentle natured boy and just loves to sit in the garden (regardless of the weather) and feel the dirt under his paws. My il's complain that we treat our cats like humans and often say "when are you going to treat your cats like cats" - I guess when they start behaving like cats and stop behaving like dogcats or spoilt princesses!
We have deadlocks on our living area (we have a stodgy sunroom out the back but who would steel my ancient washing machine, which doesn't fit down the backstairs anyway?). Half the windows in the house don't open and those that do, don't stay opened, so unless you could get through a tiny gap you couldn't get it,plus there would be a stampede of cats leaving the house, so the burglar would more likely be pushed out of the window backwards with a big, fat, grumpy ginger cat!