I cheat a bit, I have a siberian forest cat. This is the same lineage as a maine coon and norwegian forest cat. These cats are way friendlier, bigger, and affectionate than other cats.

My experience with the rewards has been mixed. Yeah dogs can be trained but anything and everything is TONS of work. I bought a $600 litterbox to avoid doing the ONE actual work thing you need to do for a cat, so for anyone who is lazy like me, cat all the way.

The important thing though the smell. They are unclean mangy animals and they stink.

This is all perspective though, I have certain values, and others have certain values. I also <3 dogs that are not mine for this reason.

Cats, I hate dogs. They are dirty, smelly, and require so much work to take care of. They throw up randomly, and pee on the floor. Cats are just so much better. I poty trained my cat day 1, by taking 5 seconds, and showing it the litter box and it was like cool m8. Day 1 for my roomates dog was him pooping on the carpet. My cat is a siberian so I get a LOT of love from him, and hes adorable. Most dogs are also ugly tbh.