All I had growing up and all were dogs. I'd heard such awful things about cats - how aloof they are etc. So I was never interested in cats.

My daughter *had* to have a cat though, and one kind of got foisted on me from a cat shelter person I worked with, with promises that I could return it if it didn't work out. By the next day, we were worshiping this amazing cat. Wise and loving, docile, just the best cat ever. So my daughter converted me, and I was truly enchanted by the things cats offer that dogs don't. So after that cat died, we got Fat Daddy, our Seal Lynx Ragdoll.