I grew up with dogs. I didn’t know their breeds or their bloodlines. I had no idea where they came from. And none of them lived at my house.

But Ginger, Taffy, Spot, and Lassie were as constant in my childhood as the friends whose families owned them, and they left a lasting impression.

So while I warm to the fluffy cat who lives next door and smile every time I pass the old horse and little donkey on my running route, I’d rather be hanging out with a dog.

The experts are divided on the question of how we form our preferences. A study by Sam Gosling, a psychology professor at the University of Texas Austin, concluded that personality determines our affinities with animals. Dog people are more extroverted, more agreeable, and more conscientious than cat people, the survey found. Cat people are more neurotic, but more open.

“There is a widely held cultural belief that the pet species — dog or cat — with which a person has the strongest affinity says something about the individual’s personality,’’ Gosling told an interviewer for a UT publication.

But some pet experts say affinity is shaped more by experience than personality.

“My mother was never a cat person until I got her a kitten, and she instantly became a cat person,’’ said veterinarian Bill Sager, owner and operator of Sager Animal Hospital in Acton. “There are more exceptions than rules.’’

When Adam Conn, president of the Maynard Dog Owners Group, was growing up in a small town in Michigan, his constant companion was a mixed terrier named Mimi.

“My childhood memories aren’t of my parents,’’ said Conn, a retired Web developer who has two Bernese mountain dogs. “It’s Mimi dragging me home.’’

But Conn also sees a connection between temperaments.

“My personality is dog. I’m very much a dog myself, extroverted, wanting to know ‘What’s up with you?’ ’’ Conn said. “Cats are more introverted. They have a particular set of rules. I love cats and cats do love me. . . . I like living with dogs better.’’

Donna Anastasi, a human systems engineer who lives in Marshfield, has been an unequivocal dog person since the age of 5, when, just before her younger sister was born, her parents took her to a kennel to pick out a beagle.

“My sister was born at the same time, but what I distinctly remember is the puppy,’’ said Anastasi, who has three dogs: Roxy, an American Eskimo dog; Oreo, a cockapoo; and Titan, a pug. “The cats I like are like dogs. They have no pride and want to be with you all the time.’’

At the MSPCA adoption center in Methuen on a recent weekday, volunteer Bob Barney, a retired engineer, lavished pats on a 5-year-old lhasa apso/shi tzu mix named Mooki. A Bradford resident who grew up in Vermont, Barney visits and walks dogs at the MSPCA twice a week.

“I always had a dog,’’ he said, holding Mooki close.

In the cat section, Wendy Cooney lowered herself to the floor, a short-haired, gray cat cuddled in her arms.

“He’ll be ‘Smokey,’ ’’ said the prospective adoptive owner from Derry, N.H., who was grieving the loss of another cat, her beloved Keena.

Haverhill resident Julia Pesek, community outreach coordinator for the MSPCA, said she’s been a cat person most of her life.

“They’re lower maintenance, easier, very sweet, very dear,’’ said Pesek, who grew up looking after the feral cats who lived in her backyard.

Kitty love also started early for Marshfield resident Vicky Lynch, a volunteer at the Marshfield Animal Shelter and the founder of the friends group that supports it.

“I always loved small furry things, stuffed animals. Cats are the closest in a living, breathing pet,’’ said Lynch, a former corporate chief financial officer who had her first cat at 6, developed allergies, and didn’t have another until a college boyfriend gave her a kitten who showed her that a cat could be heroic if the situation called for it.

“I’d left my curling iron on in the bathroom, on the clothes hamper, and it caught fire. The cat sat in the middle of the hallway hollering,’’ Lynch said. “You can say what you want about dogs being smart, but that cat had something going on.’’

Conventional wisdom holds that dogs are people-pleasers and cats want to be pleased.

But Lynch said it’s not that simple.

A cat can be difficult. It needs its space. And it wants what it wants when it wants it.

But once you’ve come to recognize its moods, you’re on your way to bonding.

“With cats, you definitely learn to read their body language. A cat can be the sweetest thing one day, and the next, if you misread the cues and kiss her on the head, you’re greeted with a claw between your eyebrows,’’ Lynch said.

But once you reach an understanding with a cat, you have a friend for life, Lynch said.

“I think it’s more special with a cat than with a dog, because when you’re accepted by a cat, you’ve overcome a challenge.’’

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at hbernstein04@icloud.com.