I hate it when people project human expressions and emotions upon animals, nobody knows if cats or dogs can have any affection to humans that's close to our definition of 'love' (or our thoughts of what love implies).
Regardless of that tho..I like to pretend they love me ;p while actually they probably just know I'm the one giving them food, hence they're trying to be nice to me to either assure they will keep getting it..or to get more