MANY emancipated single women are discovering that cats are purrfect companions.

"Catwomen" apparently find their affectionate furry friends require far less maintenance than lovers and are independent enough to fit in with the busiest of liberated lifestyles.

"Behind every gifted woman there is often a rather talented cat," proclaims a postcard. Elizabeth Paul, a Bristol University psychologist who specialises in human animal relationships, says that single women keeping pets are fulfilling some kind of need to express care giving behaviour to someone". She also believes the human cat relationship is quite an egalitarian one that may appeal to feminist instincts.

"The relationship between a person and a dog is quite dominant, but with a cat it's more equal," she observes. "As we see animals more as equals we like the fact that cats see us as inferior," comments Celia Haddon, Pet Agony Aunt of the Daily Telegraph. "I find it rather funny that my cats order me around."

Sandra Ramdhanie, a psychic psychologist, based in Shankill, Dublin, says she notices that an increasing number of young women are keeping cats. "Feline [energy is similar to female energy. They are incredibly intuitive little creatures. I feel that Irish women were programmed from a very early age to believe you put in time until you met someone nice who would make your life perfect. They are now realising they were being fed a bunch of lies and are looking more to their own resources for their happiness. A cat is an extension of oneself in a way a man isn't. They are another source of love and emotional fulfilment."

Certainly women are turning to a greater variety of sources for emotional fulfilment these days and, for a while anyway, romance may not even be near the top of their list.

Cats popularity as pets has even been quantified statistically. In 1992 there were 600,000 dogs in the Republic as against 400,000 cats, Irish petfood industry sources say, and they maintain that cats, like single households are on the increase here.

John Wilson, a vet based in Greystones, Co Wicklow, says there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people in urban areas keeping cats rather than dogs as pets.

And a significant proportion of cat owners are young single women. "They are often young independent women with high disposable incomes," says Max Hayes, product group manager of Master Foods Ireland (makers of Whiskas). "Though they may marry later on they often buy their own houses or apartments and live alone for a while. Cats are their perfect pets because they are independent, clean and don't need too much space."

Commenting on the British catfood market, Peter Ayton, a statistician with Mintel says: "In the future, affluent, single women with private pensions will be a bigger proportion of the population and they will be targeted. We need to get away from the stereotype of batty old women and present them in a positive way."

This is already happening and many catfood advertisements feature glamorous career women greeting their feline friends with a devotion normally reserved for heroes in Mills and Boon novels. Judging from anecdotal evidence, it is a devotion that is frequently reflected in ordinary life. As one observer commented "having a dog is like a marriage, but having a cat is like having an affair".

"When a cat loves you it is a great compliment," declares Celia Hammond, a former model who is now involved in animal rescue in England. "Men are demanding and selfish, cats are a whole bunch more rewarding; Cats are better than most men.

Marie Helvin, a model in England, is equally forthright. "I like the independence of cats because they don't restrict me. I can go away for weekends," she says.

"Dogs, like men, are smelly, messy and butch. Cats fit into my life." Or, as Anna Benson Gyles, director of the film Swann comments wryly: "There aren't many love interests in a woman's life that she can just leave with a bowl of milk."

At this point I should perhaps mention that I'm single and I have a cat called Puddy and have grown unaccountably fond of him. In fact he was the inspiration for a cat with the grander name of Tarquin in my novel, Wise Follies. But, like many female cat lovers, I retain a considerable affection for men, women and dogs, and many other creatures too. Love is, of course, too large and wondrous a thing to be confined to one species of animal. Still, a good cat can be a great comfort.

"My cats and dogs were a great solace to me when I was living singly for a while. They were necessary," says artist Pauline Bewick, who is now "happily back" with her husband.

"Cats pretend to be more independent than they are and women often do too," she says. "Dogs are more like men. The more I forgive men their habits, the more I love dogs.

Author Clare Boylan is also a great cat lover. She edited a book called The Literary Companion To Cats which celebrates the bliss and mystery of the human feline relationship. "Cats are the novelist's animal," she says. "They have, the gift of stillness and dogs don't."

SUZANNE Power from Skerries, Co Dublin broadcaster and author of Being You, which is a "body and soul guide for Irish women" believes that "cats can teach women how to be independent. Anyone with low self esteem should have a cat because they teach you about self hood, stillness and wildness. They teach that you don't have to keep giving all the time. That you can hold back if it feels right . . . but dogs are love me, love me'."

"I think the appeal of cats is that they are very graceful, whether male or female," adds Lisa Eveleigh, devoted owner of Fred and Ginger in London. "They have an elegance and a way of composing themselves that is very soothing - whereas most men are great clod hopping things."

Eileen Heron in Bray, Co Wicklow, acquired her "gorgeous" cat Molly when she bought a house. "I chose a cat because they are low maintenance and lovely and cuddly," she explains. But women who love cats can love men too: "Molly was a bit huffy when my boyfriend Joe came on the scene," Eileen says. "Then she realised he would scratch behind her ears too, so now she often goes to him first and I sometimes get a bit jealous."

Cat lovers cross the boundaries of age, gender and marital status. And Clare Boylan believes that "cats can put men in touch with their emotions in a way that women or even children rarely can".

"The dog is seen as a good old mate and many men won't admit to loving cats as readily, but a smaller proportion of them are equally besotted," says Sandra Ramdhanie who believes that in a past life she was a Priestess of Isis, the ancient Egyptian mother goddess. She says that the ancient Egyptians revered cats, and this tendency has stayed with her. "We are all a mixture of male and female and many men are getting more in touch with their female side," she says. "A lot more men will keep cats in the future."

Some are already doing so, as RTE reporter Helen Carroll discovered. "A cat called Toto came into my life when I met my boyfriend and it was like someone had a secret child they hadn't told me about," she says; "I'm more of a dog person myself. I think cats are far too clever. I think humans should know more than animals, and with a cat that's not always the case. I sometimes feel in competition because he is very in love with his cat. She's the second woman in his life."

Yes, the feline is out of the bag: many men love cats too - maybe the very men who have been muttering indignantly as they read how unfavourably they compare with a domestic pet. For if they had compared women as irreverently to, say, dogs, they would certainly have got a flea in their ear. "It's just female chauvinism," a male acquaintance protested. "I'm house trained, kind and sensitive and don't demand a specific brand of tuna chunks. What do you think it does to my self esteem to be compared so unflatteringly to a pet?"

I assured him that the fascinatingly fraught but wondrous allure between the sexes would probably continue. But I also advised that if he wanted some new tips about seduction he might extend his research beyond Brad Pitt to the local Burmese, or even get a cat himself. For there are still many homeless cats in Ireland, and the Cats Protection SPCA Ltd, Cats Aid, your county SPCA and many other animal welfare societies, have plenty of fabulous felines. Given a kind and loving home they will, in the words of Clare Boylan, bestow their affections "like an honour".