Yeah. I won't go so far as "weird", but definitely "foreign". I think of it as an introvert/extrovert-type self-selection. Some people are energized by energy!

Yeah. I won't go so far as "weird", but definitely "foreign". I think of it as an introvert/extrovert-type self-selection. Some people are energized by energy! Having a dog be excited just to be around you puts so much energy into the area that it's hard to ignore. Dogs are just bright glowing balls of pure joy. But for those of us who do NOT get energized by energy, but rather get drained by things around us being too energetic (music is oppressively loud, sports fans are happy or angry, games are too chaotic, everyone is talking over everyone else, etc.), a dog is more like a very small version of those things which grate on us. And, in the same way that I love a good concert but still find someone cranking up their stereo in the car irritating can't be boiled down to "loud music bad"; dogs can't be boiled down to "dogs too energetic/needy". Personally, I'm a "friend of dogs". I will never own one (though I may cohabitate with one; I wouldn't dream of imposing pet limitations on my SO), I won't spent a lot of time with any of them. But I will always be happy to see a dog; I will always try to engage them and play with them; I will always be grateful that there is a dog around, so long as it's not my responsibility to attend to their neediness. Dogs are some of the greatest friends I've ever known. I'm just not the type of person who can responsibly care for one, so I won't. Cats, on the other hand, are the inverse. For people who are bored when they sit in silence, or people who constantly want to be "active", or people who like to lead instead of follow - for extroverts, cats are such non-entities. It's like... why hold affection for something that can't clearly demonstrate any particular feeling about me? But I'm 1000% with you; I like to live around animals and essentially let them live their own lives with the small exceptions of providing stable food and water. That goes for any kind of animal, but doing so with dogs tends to make neurotic and depressed dogs, so I don't. But I'd live with apes, rodents, avians, and reptiles, so long as they manage their own business and leave me alone. Hell, cows are delightful if you've ever been around them long enough for them not to run away from you. So it's a blanket policy of "limited affection available for temporarily-needy stoics" for my pet ownership (and most human friendships, honestly), which is pitch-perfect for cats.