Hi goldeagle

First of all I'd like you to stay as far as possible away from cats until you have a bit more of a handle on this and know that you can be safely around them.

And.........I may be wrong but......unless there's some sort of experience from your childhood directly around cats........I'm seeing this as linked into your feelings around your girlfriend and your feelings around yourself...........maybe you're putting her on a pedestal and seeing yourself as less worthy from how you describe her.........and your emphasis on LOVES cats........perhaps you feel a little resentful around how much she can LOVE something that to you is kind of just an "animal"/nothing that special???
And maybe you don't feel that she shows as much LOVE towards you, or that you have to work harder for it..........perhaps making you feel even less worthy and those negative feelings about yourself just direct themselves at the focus.......the cats???
I don't know..........these are just thoughts........but.......???
Could even be something about the cats nature...........e.g. self sufficient etc.........that brings out feelings of how you felt or were treated in the past, or restrictions or expectations you felt were placed on you???

So perhaps try to work a bit more on the roots of the issue and that might give you a way ahead because I wouldn't say it was anything about cats per se.........perhaps writing down your feelings from the times of being around cats could help..........and then digging deeper into those feelings??

But finally goldeagle..........welcome to PC!!!!
And hoping you can find the support you need/want with anything on here!!

Alison