re: cat paratype
since i discovered the alterhuman community in 2015, i've known i was cat-hearted. for the same amount of time, i've questioned a cat therio/kintype on and off.
for most of that time, i've dismissed the 'type. i feel none of the instincts or desires of a cat, such as prey drive or territoriality. clearly, i would think, i'm confusing my feelings surrounding my heart-type for kinfeels. since other-heartedness isn't as well-known or talked about as otherkinity, surely it'd be easy to mistake one for the other.
the reasoning made sense, and i'd let the subject go - and yet, this cat-shaped question would return, again and again.
this last year, i discovered my identity as a mimic - a creature whose shape is influenced by its environment, the people and animals it spends time around, and the media it digests. because i was raised by humans, my physical body is human, and my envisaged shape is usually humanoid, i consider myself a human mimic. as in, not a human, but something in a human shape.
so when the cat-shaped question pawed at my door again, i was finally able to put things together: i'm a cat mimic.
it makes so much sense, really. for as long as i can remember, there's been a cat in my family's house. the first cat i bonded with as a child slept with me almost every night. cats were my first favorite animal, the first animal i really studied and sought information about. when i started teaching myself to draw, cats were one of my first subjects. of course i would mimic them!
this explains my lack of feline instincts, and how my shape never truly matches - i'm a mimic in a cat's shape, and not a cat proper.
ahh, it's just so nice to finally figure this out. that cat-shaped question has a collar with a name tag now, and happily curls up in my bed.