The dream of turning Garreg Mach Monastery into a huge cat cafe was nothing more than a salacious lie, as the promised DLC for Fire Emblem: Three Houses that allows Byleth to interact with animals does not allow the player to pet them.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses received almost universal acclaim upon release, but the game was panned in the animal petting department. The hub area of the game is Garreg Mach Monastery, which is filled with an assortment of stray cats and dogs that hang around the gardens. It's impossible to interact with these animals in any way and fans were furious with the inability to pet them. It seemed as if these issues were going to be addressed in the Season Pass, as it was revealed that one of the future updates would allow interaction with the animals in the game.
The betrayal of animal lovers in Fire Emblem: Three Houses continues unabated, as the latest update for the game doesn't offer the level of animal interaction that fans were expecting. It's now possible to give food gifts to the animals in Garreg Mach, but Byleth does this from several feet away without coming into contact with them. The cats and dogs will sometimes give you gifts in return for food, but there is no petting involved.
Nintendo has had a rough year in the animal petting department, as Daemon X Machina had a dog in its hub base that couldn't be interacted with, while the only animal that could be pet in Astral Chain was the monstrous Beast Legion. Luigi's Mansion 3 managed to make up for the poor showing by letting Luigi pet Polterpup, but you only get to interact with him at a few points in the game.
The reason fans thought that animal petting was coming to Fire Emblem: Three Houses was due to an article in Famitsu that might have been mistranslated, but it may have been wishful thinking all along. The cats and dogs of Garreg Mach won't be going hungry anymore, but their heads will sadly go untouched for the time being.
Source: Nintendo