Some 40 years ago I was living alone with two cats for company.
One failed to return home and I walked the neighbourhood for some days without finding any trace of her, or gaining any knowledge about her.
Maybe a week later an elderly woman came to the door to ask if I had recently lost a cat - she'd been asking around and had heard of my previous inquiries. She lived some little way away, with an older sister who was sick and permanently bedridden, and told me that a cat had walked into their home through the open door (mid-summer), straight into her sister's room, jumped up to lie beside her and had remained with them since that time whilst bringing much comfort to the older lady.
She was anxious to assure me that she hadn't enticed my cat from me; we walked to her home and I carried my pet back but she wouldn't settle and at the first opportunity left, to return to the two sisters. I figured that she'd made her choice, and she remained with them for some months.
There came a day when the older lady was finally taken into hospital (from which she did not return) and as she was carried into the ambulance the cat left the house and returned to me - walked in, checked the food bowl, placed a paw on the neck of the other cat to hold her down whilst she 'washed' her head for her .. and then the pair settled together on their customary chair and slept. She never wandered again and was with me for years thereafter.
It seems very evident that, somehow, she instinctively sensed that she could offer solace and comfort to a person in need, and also knew the moment when that requirement had been fulfilled. I have often wondered, and marvelled, about this event and have always been warmed by it.
One failed to return home and I walked the neighbourhood for some days without finding any trace of her, or gaining any knowledge about her.
Maybe a week later an elderly woman came to the door to ask if I had recently lost a cat - she'd been asking around and had heard of my previous inquiries. She lived some little way away, with an older sister who was sick and permanently bedridden, and told me that a cat had walked into their home through the open door (mid-summer), straight into her sister's room, jumped up to lie beside her and had remained with them since that time whilst bringing much comfort to the older lady.
She was anxious to assure me that she hadn't enticed my cat from me; we walked to her home and I carried my pet back but she wouldn't settle and at the first opportunity left, to return to the two sisters. I figured that she'd made her choice, and she remained with them for some months.
There came a day when the older lady was finally taken into hospital (from which she did not return) and as she was carried into the ambulance the cat left the house and returned to me - walked in, checked the food bowl, placed a paw on the neck of the other cat to hold her down whilst she 'washed' her head for her .. and then the pair settled together on their customary chair and slept. She never wandered again and was with me for years thereafter.
It seems very evident that, somehow, she instinctively sensed that she could offer solace and comfort to a person in need, and also knew the moment when that requirement had been fulfilled. I have often wondered, and marvelled, about this event and have always been warmed by it.
