I've always been a dog person. However, when I was younger I loved how cute kittens were but weren't interested in the adult cats. Several years after I had adopted my Shih Tzu, I had fallen in love with a kitten in a pet store window. I did not buy it but kept thinking about it and was sad to eventually see it gone weeks later. It was maybe months or a year later when I spotted another one I had liked instantly. This was in a different pet store's display window. After leaving the store on the way home, I had to call back and say I will pick her up later that day after I picked up some supplies.
My cat did start off as being fairly independent and very curious. Then she got to the stage where she acted the part of a dog and bird. She would run to my then boyfriend, now hubby on call no matter where she is in the house. She'd dash down or up stairs to the other end of the house upon his call. She'd also perch on his shoulder or climb there as if she was a parrot. She never hid from strangers, etc.
Now, she's gotten to be super clingy. More clingy and needy than my yorkie though she doesn't suffer from separation anxiety, just last night, after being out all day, when the hubby and I returned, before we opened the door, she was barking at us from the other side 4 times.
Well, not literally barking, but doing her version of complaining. She only hides from children visiting. Mainly 2 of my nephews.
I've read of people who walk their cats. I've known one person who does on a leash. I know one other person who used to walk his cats around the neighbourhood, or rather, the cat follows behind in the past when he had cats. I've seen a cat perched on the dash of a semi-truck. I've seen a cat standing on its hinds looking out the window like a dog in a car we passed on the highway. Hubby was just telling me how his friend's cat would be "barking" through their screen door at a foreign kitty on their yard. When he finally opened the door for his cat to go chase away her nemesis, she just chickened out and ran further into the house. That's very yorkie, like, you think?
Hubby used to get annoyed with his neighbour's cat always using his garden as a litter box. I'm not crazy about the overpopulation of cats left outside to defecate as they please and where they please either. Some are strays, some aren't. I know my parents' neighbour's outdoor cat(s) were left behind when they moved also. They've always had a number of cats. It's difficult to keep count.