I don't know where this "you own your dog, but your cat owns you" attitude is coming from. When I come home, my cat runs to the door, chirping as if she saw a bird. Then, she greets me by laying on the floor, reaching towards me, licking my hands while purring profusely. Love your cat and treat it with respect, and it will love you back. I treat her as my child — as if we were the same species but different age.

Every cat is different. Even cat siblings can have completely different personalities. This has nothing to do with how you treat them.
It’s just that cats are much more "selfish" than dogs on average. Dogs always love you. Cats just tolerate you as long as you are useful to them.

@Lensflare says "every cat is different" and proceeds to overgeneralize. I applaud you sir

@kiki that’s not a contradiction.
And the "different" part was to dismiss your implied claim that an apparent not-loving cat is the result of treating it poorly. It’s not.
I have had experience with many cats throughout my life. All were treated the same and all were completely different. But at the same time all of them were different from dogs.

@Lensflare I used to have a kitty named Simone (rip) who loved zoom and teams. She came in every morning for my daily standup and looked at everyone snd sometimes someone would say something and Evans would look at each other, then back to the screen in agreement. The best was when she would stand up, put her paws together. And wave them at the screen, dissolving our meeting into laughter. I sure miss her. My current cats don’t do that, but one sometimes attends meetings but is more interested in laying on my laptop and licking my mouse hand

I'm surrounded by a cat plague. The cats are scared for humans. No fun

@superdupernova

https://sciencealert.com/mysterious...

Edit: Where do the "voices" come from? The cat.

Henlo kiki

That's just affection play.

Love and slavery do mix. They call it BDSM. :P

I've noticed cats seem to like you the more you ignore them...

I hardly can tolletate them and my wife loves them. Somehow most of the cats prefer coming to me and [annoyingly] laying next to me.

I've noticed the same pattern with my inlaws

@netikras this is a pattern I see with home cats, it doesn't seem like it happens with stray (not feral) cats, actually it's quite opposite.

The issue might be much like how we get used to the comforts of our lives, the home cats are also used to get food and love without trying. The only thing they don't usually get is treats.

However stray cats have to fight for their food most of the time and tend to avoid humans. When they get food or love they usually recognize them and show love again.

That or the stray cats I met are addicted to my cat massages. https://youtu.be/blU3oUVsaBI

@melezorus34 the language I develop with strays is also noteworthy. Sometimes cats wanna be alone too so I just show my hand to them, and if they reach out with their head, then they get their pets.

When i pet a "no-no" land, instead of scratching me like i'm out of control, they are just giving me a warning bite, which is always nicer then using bandaids