g1smd - 11:10 am on Sep 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

Redirect:
RewriteRule ^cats\.html http://www.example.com/pets.html [R=301,L]
When www.example.com/cats.html is requested, tell the browser or bot to make a new request for www.example.com/pets. The address bar will change to the new URL when the browser makes a new request for www.example.com/pets.
A redirect is a URL to URL translation.

Rewrite:
RewriteRule ^pets$ /pets.html [L]
When www.example.com/pets is requested show the user the content of the file /pets.html and leave the address bar showing the same URL the user originally requested.
A rewrite is a URL to file translation.