I know there are many, but I've always been a dog person and am a
first-time new owner of a kitten.

So, I'm still giving her medicine for a "cold" (URI) and she doesn't
seem to mind it, but with a dog I would just tap on the floor and it
would come up to me.

I try the same way on kitty tonite and she crouches in stalking stance,
ready to pounce.  

That's somewhat related to another difference between cats and dogs.
Dangle a morsel in front of a dog, and they'll be all over it.  

Try to interest a cat in something and unless it's really hungry, it
might sniff at it, it might play with it a little, but it probably
doesn't care.

At least that's what I've observed.

And I haven't given kitty one scrap from my plate.  She doesn't even
bother trying to jump in my lap when I'm eating now.  She used to do
that, but it was probably as much for attention as it was what I was
eating.

I had salmon tonite and she was perfectly behaved.  Maybe her good
behavior is a product of discipline and not cat behavior.  I knew a
rottweiler that was similarly well-behaved.  I forgot to feed him one
day and he must have been starving.  What clued me in was that he was
very calmly sitting stil yet intently watching me eat dinner with a
certain pleading in his eyes.  He didn't bark, try to jump on the table,
obsessively beg or anything else.  Any other dog I've ever known that
begged for table scraps it wouldn't even have struck me as odd, but Mr.
Rottweiler knew he wasn't gonna get people food.

--
There's no way to delay that trouble comin' everyday