When facing away from the wall like in the example image, over the top is the correct way for the majority of use cases because it is the easiest direction for pulling and tearing off the squares. Under because you have cats is an acceptable compromise.
Other directions like sideways to the wall or for the masochists that have vertical roll holders are subpar. Both tend to require fighting the roll with awkward hand placements to keep the roll from continuing to feed paper when you just want to tear it off.
Those spring loaded roll holders are the work of the devil.
When facing away from the wall like in the example image, over the top is the correct way for the majority of use cases because it is the easiest direction for pulling and tearing off the squares. Under because you have cats is an acceptable compromise.
Other directions like sideways to the wall or for the masochists that have vertical roll holders are subpar. Both tend to require fighting the roll with awkward hand placements to keep the roll from continuing to feed paper when you just want to tear it off.
Those spring loaded roll holders are the work of the devil.