Nah, I’m pretty tired of the whole idea that liking animals is a prerequisite to being a good person. I was raised by an animal hoarder and I’ve had people lose their shit at me for saying I don’t like birds, or that I don’t date bird owners because I don’t want to live with birds.

I’ve never been cruel to a bird but I’ve had to tell casual acquaintances about my fucked up childhood to get them off my case. That’s not fair. Maybe don’t judge people for such pointless shit.

I don’t like hippopotami. What does that make me?

I’ve only met two people I would describe as narcissistic and they don’t align on this subject.

What they had in common was not feeling differently about cats than they do other animals, which is also true of almost everyone I’ve known that isn’t narcissistic.

Without any studies as backing, my best guess is “Dogs have owners, cats have servents”.

Alternatively: Dog thinks ‘Human gives me food and cleans my poop. Human must be a god!’. Cat thinks ‘Human gives me food and cleans my poop. I must be a god!’

And apparently cats have us psychologically hacked to adore them in multiple ways. Like how their purr is helpful for human stress relief.

Tl;dr I think it’s because cats own you back, and a narcissist would have an easy time hating them for that.

I’d suggest not, cats destroy and entire ecosystems, I’d suggest cat owners are self absorbed, entitled, narcicistic… or some combination.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cats-kill-a-staggering-number-of-species-across-the-world/

Hell, there toxoplasmotic shit kills dolphins as it washes into the ocean.

What if you do like them, but are allergic to them? 🥲

You can be narcissistic and still like cats. It’ll give you both something to bond over.

But for real, there are people who keep their cats on vegan diets because their beliefs are more important than their pets’ health.

There’s also people who insist that you shouldn’t spay/neuter your cat and still let them outside to roam free. That might not technically be narcissistic, but cats have a tremendous negative impact on the ecosystem, and feral cats suffer greatly in the wild.

All that said, I love my fuzzballs. They stay indoors, both for their protection and the local wildlife.

TIL people with allergies are narcissists. Checks out.

Ok, more serious response now:

I think how a person treats cats/pets can be an indication of how they treat others. Similar to watching how a date treats people working in restaurant and hospitality industries.

Even if a person dislikes cats, I expect them to not be assholes about it. Don’t pick on the cat. Don’t monologue on how awful they are. Realize their world doesn’t revolve around you and be ok with that.

what is it with people using asklemmy for anything but an actual open question recently?

read rule 1

I’ve just haven’t had universally good, or even clear majority good, experiences with cats. I don’t “dislike” them, but I don’t choose to like a given cat by default, because I never know what I am getting into. The cuddliest cat can and has suddenly decided it is clawing the shit out of me without warning, and without fail the owner acts like that’s just their cats personality, or just a “cat” thing.

I’ve never had a dog react in such a way unprovoked. Sure, I’ve met asshole dogs, and they warn me not to go near them immediately. But I’ve never had a dog wander up to me, insist on pets, and then all of a sudden bite me.

I like animals that try to tell me how they’re feeling, rather than flip with no warning, and I feel the same way about people.

I can see the logic behind the mistaken correlation between narcissts and cat haters. Cats are known to be independant animals, unlike many other pets that praise you unconditionally just because you provide the food. They don’t feed a stereotypical narcissists desire. But it’s a gross oversimplification of both human-animal relationships and diagnosible narcissism to suggest that there’s any real correlation between the two based on that.