People who worship cats (or maybe less fervently, care unusually much about stuff related to cats) inspire other people to try to analyze why and how those people care so very much. J.C.E. Austin made one of the most notable recent attempts to make sense of it all. Details are in her PhD dissertation:
” ‘Worshipers of Felinity’: Identity Construction via the Domestic Cat,” Jessica Joyce Elizabeth Austin, PhD dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2024.