I heard stories of cats that gave somebody in the family a permanent scar, because it was startled by something. I remember hearing this pastor tell the story of how he got a permanent scar on his cheek by letting the family cat sleep on his chest when he was a child, while his mother was cooking dinner. His mother had said something like dinner was ready, and when he suddenly moved to get up, he startled the cat, causing it to leave that permanent scar on his cheek. When telling that story, it still didn't sound like he forgave that cat, not to mention he referred to it as his mothers cat.
I only know three people I was close to who didn't like cats. One was a brother I grew up with. He didn't like cats because he use to have nightmares of them being in bed with him as a child, meowing. I'm sure somebody in his family had already put something in his head about cats.
This other person was a former best friend of mine. He use to tell me he would see a cat sitting on the fence, sucker it into thinking it was going to give them food, then smack them. He would described this drunk dizzy look these cats would have on their faces after he'd smack them. I couldn't help but laugh because he had brownish hazel eyes like a cat. He said it all started when he went down his grandmothers basement one day as a child. He said she kept a bunch of cats down there, and they all attacked him.
Then last but least was my old girlfriend from Cameron. Over there, they have bars on their windows to keep wild animals from getting in their homes. Anyway, she said their family owned a female cat, and one night some wild male cat got through the bars on her bedroom window, looking to mate with their female cat. She said it wounded up attacking her, leaving scratches on her face. See said she didn't liked cats ever since. I never knew how it affected her relationship with their family cat.