Why cats?

I have given many reasons why but none true. There isn't enough time to answer when I am asked in person. People want to hear about a specific cat that inspired the beginning, but I could never own a cat. They endanger birds. And whatever reason I may give changes with each time the question is asked.

There's a certain expression domestic cats give that I don't see expressed the same way in other animals. A look that suggests they have looked beyond and within you. That they've taken in the whole of the universe at a glace. At times a dog can give you that expression, but it's quickly followed by a reaction. While for cats, it just seems to linger. Birds have the reaction, but it seems natural and appropriate for them. As if they're troubled or confused by mammalia. Anyway, I think that expression lends itself nicely to the whole of history and culture. Place a cat-head with that expression and the vibrancy of history and culture seem foreign to humanity; alien.

Or maybe what happened to me was somewhere the past reached into me, old masters of feline and other anthropomorphic portraiture have taken a hold on me. An artistic possession.