Why there might be more canine/feline therians

I think all these theories are lovely and have equal sustenance in terms of what could be most possible!

For me, I definitely grew up among felines (spotted ones, even), so I agree with the theory that a couple others have mentioned — as humans, we tend to bond most closely to those creatures which we grew up with, and so this may perhaps be a result of sub-conscious imprinting, or the urge to seek out something that you are familiar with. I’ve grown up with Bengal cats my whole life so far, so I definitely bond well with them and see myself in them, to some uncertain extent. But I actually didn’t immediately question any spotted felines as my initial ’type — I believe I had considered a tiger or lion.

I also agree with @/elinox, though, that this theory might not hold up with most feline therians. Pretty much all feline species with the exception of lions, domestic cats, and (to some extent) male cheetahs are solitary, and will act aggressively toward any feline that intrudes on its territory or personal space. For me personally, I know that my sociability stems from the fact that I am simply human at the end of the day, and humans are social creatures. We desire group compatability, even if we might prefer to spend our time alone sometimes. We desire to be heard and seen, validated. So I don’t think we can erase that part of us, and that definitely has to be recognised.

XX,
KK.

Not everybody is a therian. When I came out to a friend as being therian, they immediately reacted by saying "so what kind of animal am I?". They obviously hadn't done any kind of introspection beforehand and reacted as if this one fact had just changed their outlook on themselves and their world. It felt as though there even was excitement at play when they heard of this, other kind of excitement than what you would usually expect.

Of course, this is a one time event only. However, I'm not quite convinced that there are many therians globally. I am sure there are therians who don't know they're therians but to say that almost everybody is one, is beyond logical reasoning. We're a niche community, with a very varied share of opinions among its members.

I liked the first part of your theory, though. But I think it's a bit of a faulty comparison. How can I explain?

There are so many wolves because they're social animals so the majority of human beings identifying as therians have to be wolves, dogs or cat-like themselves. But what about reptiles or poultry, like somebody suggested a while back? One hundred percent of therians are human beings, human beings that live in social structures, the way we're all familiar with them. It's not because these human beings are social animals, their theriotypes have to be social themselves. I think theriotypes can go in all directions really, be it something extinct or non existent on this earth (theriomythics, the otherkin). Of course it's easier for a human being to relate to a wolf because of its hang for living in groups, if that human being is a social creechur themselves naturally. But I'm sure that there is an equal chance somebody is not a wolf or cat but is theriomythic, dragon-like or vampire instead. Perhaps we haven't heard of the real numbers of wolves that are out there. Maybe they are wrong about their theriotypes, aren't wolves or aren't therian altogether. What I would like to see is how many of us actually still believe they're a wolf therian, who isn't and then reduce the overall amount of therians by that amount who doesn't believe they're it anymore. I think the group believing in something else (non-canine or non-feline) will soon become much larger.

In regards to the theory that some canines/felines have their type wrong, maybe this story will help.

I had a “bat phase” in my teens. During this period, I was trying to see myself as a bat instead of a bird, and I even made a bat fursona. I really wanted to be a creature with fur and a cute snout and big ears, because I thought those things were cool. So when I was trying to create my ideal self, I meshed together the things I felt like I needed (ie. flight, long claws) and what I wanted (the mammalian traits). My fursona was basically a fox with wings. However, I couldn’t lie to myself for very long: my experiences have always been strongly avian.

As humans, we do seem to have this weird draw to canines and felines, finding them both cute and cool. At least in my case, once I’d already accepted that I feel like an animal, there was some wish-fulfillment element of “let me gather all the most beautiful and attractive traits to create an image of what I am.” But obviously, that isn’t very productive.

What’s interesting is that I think this explains a canine-feline identification in the TikTok therians, and some young people who haven’t gotten much of a chance to think about themselves yet, but there’s still quite a few canines and felines left over who seem very self-assured. There could be all kinds of explanations, some compelling ones being:
-Imprinting (we keep canine/feline pets)
-Genetic similarities (cats/dogs are mammals. You could reply to this by asking “where’s the primate therians then,” but my thoughts are that a lot of them don’t experience displacement or dysphoria to the extent of others because humans are primates).
Not much of an authority on the spiritual stuff, but those arguments are interesting too.