My kid and I have a running head-canon that cats are actually higher-dimensional slug monstrosities that our human brains can't fully comprehend.
The "cats" we know and love are actually an anglerfish-like protrusion that pokes through into our lower-dimensional spacetime.
The saliva they coat themselves in contains a mild hallucinogen which produces a calming effect that helps mask their true natures, so they can lure humans closer to feed off the kinetic energy of headpats.
@alice well.. she may be an eldritch horror formed out of a twisted knot of the deep dark void between the dimensions..
But she loves my lap so I'm happy to feed the beast :)
@alice My head-canon is that cats are basically skin goblins wearing fur coats. Except the sphynx cats, who are naturists. (Gollums with a glamour consultant!)
@alice yes, and it is still going. It was resurrected some years back, and I think returned to Bray, bringing Bray Studios back from the brink so to speak!
@alice@homelessjun Maybe the hair ties (elastic ones, right?) are to build a higher dimensional catapult to send those who figure it all out off to the Cat Dimension for reprogramming.