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I am not a cat person, but I've lived with a couple of them and they can be really charming little companions. They can also be incredible assholes and imo their charisma doesn't make up for it. Some people just weigh the pros and cons differently.
I think it's more of a gamble with cats. Dogs are just gonna love you. Some cats are completely sweet and cuddly, and others attack your ankles everytime you try to get water.
Depends on the dog too. Maybe you’ve only experience good dogs but there are MANY dogs out there with dangerous behavioral issues. “Dogs are just gonna love you” just isn’t true. It depends on the breed, the dog, and their history.
As a cat person who has had several cats and never lived with a dog long term, I am surprised to learn this (though it seems so obvious). My response was based off of what so many dog people have told me! If it's a gamble either way, why would you pick the animal who has better ability to actually kill you?
Part of this is people continue to believe cats can't be trained. It's harder, but possible. It also means you have to work harder to train out bad behaviour (and they will only mostly stop while you're around). So getting your cat to not bite you can be done, as well as training them to not go on the counter when you can see it.
Cats are also domesticated differently than most animals, and will absolutely, literally shit on things they know you care about if you piss them off.
It makes sense that bad cat owners are responsible, in large part, for bad cat behavior. That said, if it's so difficult to raise a cat properly, then maybe cats just aren't good pets for most people.
As I said, cats are domesticated differently. Current speculation is they self-domesticated during the beginning of agriculture. What this means for us is that, unlike dogs, it's more of an agreement between us and them, and they will make it known if they don't agree with the situation. This is the nugget of truth behind "Dogs have owners, cats have staff." So, as with dogs, if your lifestyle isn't acceptable to them, you shouldn't own them. The difference is what is acceptable.