Dogs and Cats - Who is closest to man?

I like dog but I won't have it as a pet. I like them because they are just smart and loyal to human. And my parent won't let me have them:P Cats only loyal to houses.

I think I prefer dog. I heard that dog and human connect to each other for the past thousand years ago(this is what I heard), human can't really sleep well at that time until dogs started to help human to be alert by their 'woof woof' when they saw or heard something unusual. This is when the human started to sleep well and then, they started their relationship with dogs. Dogs give the protection alert while human give food to dogs. Therefore, dogs are closet to man.