"average cat owner spends 3 years in prison" factoid actualy just statistical error. average owner spends 0 years in prison. Miette's mother, who kicked her body like the football and went to jail for One Thousand Years is an outlier adn should not have been counted
Thinking about teenage Sirius, wickedly smart with top grades, a rich heir to an old pureblood house, tall and handsome and haugty, drawing many admiring and envious looks that he appears to be above acknowledging. Popular, yet sticks to his small and close circle of friends, not really allowing anyone else close.
But even with them he's guarded about his own physical space; the old uncease is hard to shake, and it twists the want into knots. No matter how much he craves this intimicy, he struggles to accept it when it's given, and initiating it himself is even more difficult.
Padfoot makes everything simple, though. And so Sirius starts turning into him whenever he needs to be close - because asking for cuddles is so much easier for the dog than it is for the boy.