Sweet behavior from my cat Ninja tonight.
Today was just one of ‘those’ days and I was sitting by the tree listening to music and Ninja came up and started licking my arm and rubbing her head against me. Now she is just sitting right by me softly purring.
It’s not feeding time and I’ve sat here before at days end and she doesn’t come up to me (but I wasn’t sad then)
Whether intentional or not she helped me a lot 
I do. Or they think we are dying and want to be there to get the first bite…but our cats are much more clingy/attentive when I am sick, have a migraine, or am sad. I appreciate it, and don’t question it.
I hope tomorrow is a better day for you.
Lol ‘get the first bite’ made me laugh.
Yeah I like to think in some way they know.
Thank you, my grandma has dementia and it gets hard seeing her slip away
I’m very sorry about your grandma. Mine had dementia as well and I know how hard that is.
And my cats also become very ‘paws-on’ when I have a bad day. To the extent that having to manage them and their underfootedness invariably shifts my focus from my crappy day to the fact that I own very annoying cats! 
My cat who passed away was like that. I always said he was like a dog in a cat’s body… He was like glue and if I was upset he would climb on my shoulder and kiss my face. Best cat I’ve ever had. He absolutely loved me.
My new kittens are all cat. Independent and adventurous and a bit oblivious to my existence. I’m there to feed them or give them attention if they are in the mood.
Thank you, sorry to you too.
Lol! Gotta love cats. They are lovable fools that’s can drive us nuts
I’m sorry about your grandma. I hope tomorrow is a good day for you and her.
My heart kitty (Dewey) had to be put to sleep last summer. I was very sad and my other cats stayed close to me when that was going on.
Dewey was always very snuggly with me and now that he’s gone, one of the other cats has taken up this role. He has always been a sweet kitty but not really snuggly like now. I wonder if he always wanted to be that way before (but Dewey wouldn’t really let him) or if he knows there’s a hole that needs to be filled.
First of all I’m very sorry to hear about your grandmother.
Oddly enough, this topic is on point in many ways. My Grandma’s dementia took a turn this past weekend, and she can’t live at home any longer. She’s also past the point of being able to care for her cat, whom I spent the last week preparing to bring in to my apartment. I don’t have the best relationship with my Grandma, but the whole thing has been so sad watching a woman with so much dignity decline, and her cat kept her going for longer than she might otherwise have been of sound mind. I’m grateful to him for that and wanted to give him a warm, soft landing and a forever home.
I had a lot of mixed feelings bringing him in to my home, especially because of course even though it’s not possible, I would love to see him and my Gram together as there’s a lot of love there. But I moved him in about eight hours ago, sequestered to my room to get adjusted on his own, and the first thing he did when he got brave enough to leave the carrier was jump up on my bed and stare at me and start purring. He’s been curled up at my side all night, hasn’t even explored the rest of the room yet. I feel a lot better, at least for the moment. They definitely know!
Definitely. I remember taking Tenuto to visit mom in the nursing home. She was calm but wasn’t typically a lap cat. There, though, she would sit like a statue not only in mom’s lap but in other laps, softly purring. Then as I drove home, she would sit on my lap all the way and purr at me. She knew.
Sorry about your grandma.
Oh, sure they do. Not all, but many.
When I’m sick or depressed, my kitties always know and stay close by. If I have a migraine, they’re often laying right beside me. After a Very Bad Day a few years ago, they almost made me drag them to work with me!
Sassy is unlike any cat I’ve ever had. If I raise my voice - either arguing with someone on the phone or yelling at the TV - she immediately jumps in my lap, gets right in my face, and starts ‘talking me down.’ Literally starts ‘talking’ and trying to calm me down. My friend is amazed by it - he can hear her over the phone sometimes.
And of course, they know when one of the cats has left us for good. Trixie they didn’t mind so much, but Rascal and especially Nigel, they really felt.
No. Cats do what is in their best interests only. We are just lucky when they actually show us some love and affection. We love them anyways.
Looks like she timed it well and I am glad.
I’ve experienced something similar. 3 years ago I adopted a kitten knowing that my heart kitty was getting older and slowing way down. I wanted my heart kitty to have a few years of ‘training’ the new kitten so that new kitten could have some of those good traits hopefully rub off on him. Rather like turning out a rambunctious weanling with a wise old gelding so the older of the two can teach the younger one how to behave.
Now I know cats are temperamental and silly, delightful creatures who rarely do what we want them to do, but my plan worked. Baby Milo was a handful, but he LOVED my older cat Artie and stuck to him like velcro. Artie took on his roll of teacher/mentor and seemed to like having a Padawan learner. They always napped together, played and groomed each other, but Artie knew he was still the big man on campus. He got the coveted “moms pillow” night time sleep spot and Milo would sleep on the couch.
3 years later, Artie’s health took a drastic turn and we had to put him down. Now a full adult cat, Milo carries on Artie’s legacy of being a very good boy and he now has the coveted sleep spot on my pillow. He knew he had some big paws to fill and has really stepped into the role of ‘top cat.’
With the unforeseen addition of foster kittens Milo became Mr. Mom. He loved those kittens and let the little fluffs climb on him and bat his tail around. He did however, draw a frim line when they tried to nurse on his rather ample tummy. We kept one of the babies and she and Milo are thick as thieves. He now has a Padawan leaner of his own and is doing darn good job of teaching Gemma how to be a very good kitty thanks to Artie’s training.
So yeah, I think that kitties know when there is a hole that needs to be filled. updating to add pic. How it started… how its going
My husband was in treatment for fairly advanced cancer for most of 2021. Chemo, radiation, and an ostomy bag between surgeries for several months.
The dog started to hate him. While he had the ostomy bag, she desperately wanted to stay away from him, ideally by being on another floor of the house. She’d run away from him when he’d try to put her leash on to take her for walks.
His heart kitten did not mind his treatment. She cuddled and slept with him during his frequent naps. She comes when he calls and they can carry on full conversations. She sits pretty for him to put on her harness so they can go outside for walks. Even our other kitty still wanted to be in his lap for tummy rubs when he had the ostomy bag.
DH says we are cat people now. I know the dog must have been very alarmed by the change in his smells and whatnot, but it’s bad form for man’s best friend to hide in the shower from him in his time of need. The cats were definitely the ones to show up for the hard stuff.
Absolutely. I think anything that is communal or lives in some sort of society, has some ability for empathy/concern.
When I was growing up, we had a siamese cat that was given to me for my 7th birthday. I had two younger sisters – there was lots of hysterics in this house ( 
). Any time one of us cried, this cat would extract himself from whatever corner of the house he was sunning in and find us, crawl into our lap, and knead. It got to the point we would “fake cry” in bed at night, when we were told to go to bed, and we would hear the tap-tap-tap of his feet as he trotted down the hall and let himself into the bedroom, to find the crying child on the bunk bed. He lived to be 17 and was a wonderful, intelligent cat.
My current trio, two are very inquisitive and emotionally intelligent. They both come when they notice we are upset. Today is one day shy of a year of the day my SO’s grandfather passed away. My SO got the call last year on the 15th, and he began to cry during the phone call with father, who was also his crying. All three cats were on his lap within seconds. For cats that I have never seen share a space like that, it was shocking but touching. I don’t know how else you could explain that, except for that they were concerned.
Balderdash!
I hope that someday you will have a close enough bond with a cat that will comfort you.
This is a hard one for me to type but here goes…
My wonderful cat Teddy was that kind of cat. If I was feeling sick or sad he would come and sit right by me and keep looking into my face and reaching up to pat me on the face or the mouth. I remember being really depressed and crying one day and he came and stood up on my chest and was looking in my face and kept bumping me with his head and patting me on the mouth with his big miffy paw. Sometimes I would wake up an find him curled up in my arms, just staring at me.
Once I was sitting in bed reading and happened to be reading an article in a British cat magazine about communicating with your cats. I was looking right at him and thinking about how much I loved him when he reached out and patted me right over my heart. All while looking me right in the eyes. I remember I just burst into tears because I knew he understood.
Best cat ever. How I miss him.
Sorry for your loss. It’s moments like that, that just make you know somehow animals understand.
Not a cat but I experienced something similar with horses. When I lived in Arkansas still my neighbor had 10 horses that I helped with.
The day my best friend passed away I went down there to try and clear my head and I will never forget. Multiple horses one by one came up to me and put their head on my shoulder and then one of my favorite horses leaned her head into my chest and stood there completely still while I cried into her mane
Our cats have always been loving and affectionate. Maybe I just never needed comforting like everyone else? Or maybe because my dogs were there to do it for them?
That must be the reason why your cats have never comforted you!
My old cat long ago, not sure who is comforting there, maybe is reciprocal: 
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