wildyams

I've been wanting to write something about cat people for a while now, but haven't for fear of being lynched by a herd of all the cat people I know. I want all of you close cat people friends of mine to know, I hold no ill will to you guys at all, and I don't look down on you or think you're losers (at least not for being cat people, I might look down on you or think you're losers for something else though :lol), so please don't string me up for this post. The thrust of my post here is this: why? What makes a cat person the way they are? Where does the intensity of your feelings for cats come from? What is it that pushes interest over into infatuation, obsession, or in some cases insanity?

Let me be clear, I can understand having a close bond with your own cat (or even more general, with your pet), but cat people have this almost manic reaction to all cats in general. I've been told that dog people are the same, and to be honest I don't have any idea if that's right. I've never seen anyone get crazy over a dog before like how cat people get over cats, but that could very well be because I've just never met any dog people. Those people that enter their dogs in contest sure look pretty nuts to me, so I know they're out there, but either they're not as prevalent, or I've just never been around one before. Actually, I take that back. I dated a girl once who was pretty intense about her dogs (she had 4), but then again she had 7 cats and she owned a pet-sitting business, so maybe she's an exception.

I myself have never been a big pet person. I grew up with 2 cats in the house and we had at one point for about a year or two 3 dogs when I was a kid. When I was in college I got one snake, then sold it and got another one, and also got a scorpion at one point, but it didn't last more than a couple months, but that's pretty much been it for me with pets. I haven't had a pet since my last snake died about 10 years ago. I do like pets, and have fun petting or playing with cats and dogs if I'm around them, but I definitely don't lose my mind over the sight of them. As I said, I do understand people having a strong attachment to their pet. What I'm mostly curious about, is (and I know I'm making a generalization here) why are cat people so much intense in their feelings towards cats than other pet owners seem to be about their species of pet?

Keep in mind that I'm not saying that everyone who is a cat owner is a "cat person", just like everyone who watches Star Trek is not a "Trekkie". Also, please keep in mind I'm really not condemning people for being this way, I really am not looking to hold anyone up to ridicule or anything like that. I am genuinely looking for some kind of explanation about what it is about cats that makes some people have such an intense reaction to them? I'm just very curious about things that inspire fanaticism. Why do people go more crazy for cats or Star Trek or Morrissey or Apple computers or whatever than the fans of the alternatives do?