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I must take issue with you about cats’ supposed selfishness. First, cats aren’t the loners they are often made out to be. They can bond with other cats even when they aren’t litter mates; two of my cats who were adopted ten months apart have formed a close bond. Cats have been known to form colonies with communal nurseries (if that’s the best word) for the kittens. In addition, there are plenty of instances of mother cats allowing themselves to be taken by coyotes or other predators so that their kittens or other cats in the colony could escape. It might be a stretch to call their sacrifice altruism in the full human sense but it is most certainly not a distillation of narcissism.

As far as similarities to the use or abuse of women, I can’t forget the big ginger cat who lived on the floor of the hospice where my mother died. He sensed when she wanted companionship, slept on the foot of her bed for several nights during her last week, and was with her when she died–which I wasn’t able to be.

I think you are doing just a wee bit of projecting here.