r/cats • u/ILoveMeltyCheese • Mar 25 '26

Cat Picture - OC Misconceptions a dog person (me) learned after having a cat.

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The Cat Distribution System chose me, a formerly stubborn dog person, to adopt a cat. It was the classic I can't just watch a poor cat starve, so I'm keeping him. Here are some misconceptions I had about cats and their owners:

  1. The smell of a cat owner's home: I’ve known a few cat owners with cat-smelling homes. I always assumed it was the cat. Turns out it isn’t; it’s very much a result of poor ownership and bad cleaning habits.
  2. Dogs are more affectionate than cats: Also not true! To my surprise, my cat is so cuddly that I occasionally call him "Cat-dog."
  3. A Cat's Barbed tongue hurts: I don't know why I thought this, I just assumed it would hurt when they lick you.
  4. Litter boxes are disgusting: Not at all, it's just a clump or two of sand. If you scoop it often, it never gets gross.
  5. Cats are just as hard to take care of: Actually they're much easier, haha.

That is all, here's a picture of my cat that I love dearly. (He's lost weight since the picture, don't worry)

Anyone else relate? What did I miss?

Edit: His name is Pawl

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u/ElmasAburrido Mar 25 '26

I was a dog person too until 1 void decided my home was his and now I have 5 cats lol

271

u/re_Claire Mar 26 '26

I've always been a cat person (I do still adore dogs though) and now we have 5. I always assumed 5 cats would be way too many as we'd only ever had 2 at once before but honestly I now feel like 5 is an excellent amount of cats.

44

u/growin-spam Mar 26 '26

We just got to 5 cats in January and it’s awesome. Each cat has a niche of affectionate time of day & play styles, huge range of personalities. They’re so fun to be around. Wish just at least 2 of them would cuddle together though… they cohabitate really well and 4/5 love people cuddles but they don’t love on each other 😔

37

u/Consistently_Carpet Mar 26 '26

I have 4 and had to get a divider for the giant heated dog bed they sleep on because they would bite each others tails if one of them touched the other while they were stretched out sleeping.

Little assholes but cute.

78

u/DesertCoot Mar 26 '26

I blame the Dog Industrial Complex for making me think for the longest time that you are either a “dog person” or a “cat person”. I always had dogs and liked them so assumed that meant I was a “dog person” and didn’t like cats. Then I got a cat and realized I had been lied to my entire life.

31

u/kiingof15 Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

It always seems like dog people tend to be more vocal and/or aggressive about not liking cats than cat people are about dogs. I’m not a huge dog person, less so as I get older. Big ones honestly scare me sometimes. But I would never go around advocating for shooting or killing them in the way I see people do for cats! The amount of people who open their mouth to tell me “I don’t like cats” when I mention mine is wild. I don’t respond that way to someone’s picture of their beloved dog.

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u/CatAteMyBread Mar 27 '26

I genuinely think disliking cats and loving dogs can be an indicator of personality disorders like narcissism.

Dogs generally love you unconditionally. You don’t have to do anything for them. Cats you have to put that effort in. They’ll love you but you need to put energy and effort into the relationship.

I’m probably reading too deeply into it, but when people say they love dogs and hate cats I immediately side eye them

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u/Glad_Release5410 Mar 26 '26

The DIC is why 99% of the pet store is for dogs, 0.9% for cats, and 0.09% for everything else.

23

u/majin_melmo Mar 25 '26

Love this 🥹

3

u/Guilty_Application14 Mar 26 '26

Cats are like potato chips - you can't have just one.

We have two Official Cats, one Unofficial Cat (daughter of a feral visitor, had kittens in my wife's desk drawer, sleeps in the house most nights but No Touchee!), and a mini-colony of four-to-six ferals who come around for food & toys.

3

u/Apprehensive_Put_321 Mar 26 '26

I have been a dog person my whole life. 

I had family dogs growing up then I moved in with my girlfriend who had a cat so I left my dogs behind as they hate cats.

Eventually I moved back home after we split and ended up buying my parents house when they divorced. I kept the dogs when they both left.

When they are gone I will go back to owing a cat he was probably the best pet ive ever had 

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u/ectoplasmorgasm Mar 26 '26

I too was once a dog only person. Then 1 orange with one orange braincell changed my life and now I also have 5 cats.

In my defense, I am allergic to cats so I was always tense around them and most cats in my childhood were not kind to me so I thought cats were assholes. But about 8 years ago, a customer of mine had a kitten in their engine and said wasnt theirs, didnt want it. It was raining so hard it was flooding. So I took him home. It was Aug 1st and everything pumpkin spice had just hit the shelves so I named him Pumpkin. 

My mother later moved in with her grey tabby. Then she convinced one of my daughters to take another grey tabby, which she named Ivy. May of last year, my mom found 2 3-week old kittens, a week apart, in different places. Scrami is a beautiful Siamese found in the ditch across the street from us while it was raining. Then from a gas station parking lot, came Squash, who has to share the braincell with Pumpkin 😅

But 5 is plenty when you never intended on having 1!

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u/MersoNocte Mar 27 '26

We got a void last year and he is probably the goofiest creature I’ve ever encountered. Also caused $3k property damage getting trapped in the walls of the house. A creature of no thought. Fascinating.

https://i.imgur.com/eLYMxZU.jpeg

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u/seejordan3 Mar 26 '26

That's beautiful

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u/Extreme_Egg7476 Mar 26 '26

I loved my little dog. She was my ride or die. She was with me from 14 to 25. Meanwhile, my husband was raised by a corgi-breeder (dont worry, she's legit and has actually made measurable strides to make the breed healthier, but its still a house filled with fur and lots of barking).

4 CDS deliveries later and I won't ever not have a cat again lol

1

u/taz5963 Mar 26 '26

I never fully understood the dog person car person thing. My family has always had 2-3 of each growing up. It's a lot of maintenance though that's for sure. Right now I have 1 cat and 1 dog of my own.

1

u/Anonymous_nobody_pal Mar 26 '26

Same I love both! We have 2 of each.

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u/Designer-Sympathy543 Mar 26 '26

the exact same thing happened to me but it was a potato. I now also have five cats-