Taming a Dog

I've known about cats a lot longer than I've known about dogs.  But I could never manage to catch a cat. I'd get hearts for feeding them and everything but they would never follow me.  So imagine my surprise yesterday when I captured a wolf and made it into a dog by smacking it with a bone. (Use left click because right click will kill it).  I had it for a while then lost it when it was attacked by a mob of spiders. But straight away I got another one, and so far I still have it.  I even died once, and assumed it would also vanish, but it was still there when I respawned.  In my current scenario, which I called Botanica, I haven't even seen a cat yet.

Cats

When I was on a hill today I spotted what looked like a cat.  Before I could catch it and investigate, it bounded away into the jungle. Are there cats?

Update: I found another cat. It looked like a leopard so I killed it before it killed me.  It let out a pitiful wail when it died.  I thought 'uh oh, I thing it was a friendly kitty.'

So I looked it up on Youtube and sure enough, if you offer the kitty a fish or two it turns from wild to tame and follows you home. My friend on Facebook says if you die you lose your cats.  Sad. Now that I have some fish, I haven't seen any cats, so I'll keep you posted.