ailurophilia

ailurophilia \ahy-loor-uh-FIL-ee-uh, ey-loor-\, noun:

a liking for cats, as by cat fanciers.

During the past half-dozen years, a time when ailurophilia has been rampant in the land, the bookshelves have become crowded with volumes in which cartoonists, painters, writers and poets pay their respects to that most independent, most enigmatic creature,Felis domestica.
-- The New York Times Book Review, 1981

The renowned American poet T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) expressed his form of ailurophilia in the Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
-- Bruce Fogle, Cats, 2006

Ailurophilia combines the Greek aílouro meaning "cat" with -philia meaning "affection, affinity." In modern usage, -philia is most often used in the formation of compound words that have a general sense "unnatural attraction" or "tendency."