Yes, with one condition: the flag isn't the cat, it's how he talks about the cat. A man who has kept an animal alive for years that has never once thanked him, and who still says "she's just shy" when it hisses at you, is showing you something real. A man who mentions the cat to seem soft is showing you a marketing plan. The cat can tell the difference in about a week, and so can you.
The study everyone quotes, and what it actually found
In 2020 two researchers at Colorado State and Boise State showed 708 women aged 18 to 24 the same men in two photos, one alone and one holding a cat, and asked whether they'd date him. With the cat, the share who said they'd consider a casual date dropped from 38% to 33%. Men with cats were also rated as less masculine, and more neurotic, agreeable and open. The paper's title is "Not the Cat's Meow?", which tells you the authors enjoyed themselves.
Three things about that before anyone deletes a photo. It was one age band, 18 to 24, at the exact age when "masculine" still does a lot of work in a swipe. It measured a photo, which is not a person. And "more agreeable and open" is the list of traits people say they want in a partner right up until they're looking at a thumbnail. The study found that a cat costs you five points with strangers in a hurry. It didn't find that cat dads are worse partners. Nobody has found that, because it isn't true.
What a cat says about a man, from the cat's side
Dogs love whoever holds the leash. A cat's opinion has to be earned, slowly, on the cat's terms, with no guarantee it'll ever arrive. So a man with a cat that comes when he sits down has passed an audit that ran for months without him knowing the criteria. That's the green flag, and it's a better one than any photo: something with no reason to like him decided to.
It also tells you he can do the unglamorous version of care. The litter box has no audience. Nobody posts the 6 a.m. feeding, the vet bill, the year the cat got old and needed pills in a pill pocket twice a day. A man who does that without turning it into a story is a man who'll do the other unglamorous things too.
The three kinds of cat dad
The one who chose the cat. Went to the shelter, picked the one that bit him, named it something like Gus. Owns the identity outright and has opinions about litter. Buy him a cat dad t-shirt; he'll wear it on purpose.
The one who didn't want the cat. The cat came with the partner, or the roommate, or the kid who swore they'd take care of it. He said no for a year. He now lets it sleep on his chest and has a voice he uses only for it, which everyone in the house has heard through the wall. This is the classic, and it's who the cat dad gifts page is written for, because the gift is also a way of saying "we all know".
The one who says he's a dog person. Has a cat. Has had the cat for six years. This is a cat dad in denial, and the correct gift is a cat dad mug he has to look at every morning until he accepts it.
Is he a green flag on a first date
If he shows you a photo of the cat before you ask: yes. If the cat has a full name and a middle name: yes. If he says "I'm more of a dog person, but" and then talks about the cat for nine minutes: yes, and he'll get there. If he says the cat is "the girlfriend's" in a tone that means the cat is a hostage: no, and the cat knows.
The bar is low and specific: does he treat something that can't repay him with basic dignity. That's the whole flag.
The gift, since you're here
Father's Day is the obvious day, and the Father's Day page is built for the cat dad specifically, not the generic one with the grill. The rest of the year, the cat dad gifts page has the tees. Everything else is on gifts for cat lovers, and the wear department if you'd rather browse than be told.
If you're writing the card, the cat puns post has fifteen and a rule about only using one.
Green flag, and the cat is the witness. After all this time, it decided to stay in the room.