I have to say up front I am not a cat person.
I have friends that have all kinds of animals.
2 cats biscuit and gravy
I am ilergic to cats as long as I wash my hands if I touch One am ok.
Very time I go over their house
Gravy comes climbs on my knee
And sits. Not facing me ,justs sits
He won't move until I get up.
Crazy thing I don't have to touch him.
They say he does this for no one else.

Cats seem to have a sense for people who really don't care for them and will do that. When I first met my wife, I had 2 inside cats who would sit right by her on the couch. She was allergic to them. They didn't really bother anyone else.
The cats and dog ended up outside and the wife stayed.

A cat can pick someone that does not like cats or is allergic to cats out of a crowd of folks in less than 5 minutes.

I currently have 4,coyotes got the others I have had. I had an old mama cat several years ago who trusted me so much that one day when I was on the toilet with my breeches around my ankles,she commenced to give birth to her litter in my pants.wellllll,I was kind of a captive audience as you say.She had the strangest ability to know when I was opening the kitchen drawer to open a can of cat food or just get silverware. She knew before I did what my intensions were.

Cats give me the heebie jeebies, I am allergic to them and I have gone out of my way to shoot every feral cat I see (where legal, most in Australia).

The bastards won't leave me a lone, especially if I am a guest in someone's house who has one.