Do your cats tune into your moods?  

I am loving animals more and more! I have always been an animal lover, but I am discovering that I can trust my animals more than most humans.

Thank you for the great laugh! I can see the whole episode with Briar in my mind. It is so sweet and so funny! If I am crying the cats will bring me every toy they have to help me feel better. When I had to go through physical therapy in my home, the cats would all take strategic positions so that if the therapist hurt me they could attack. It wasn't until the last day that they got friendly with the therapist. What was so sweet was each of the cats would come up and check on me after the therapy and make sure that I was okay.

My cats are all in it for themselves, they will come love on me because they know I'll pet them. I go to bed and I have Ping, Pong, Taj, Scamp and often, Gizmo, Timus, and Gabby all trying to be in pet range - and then there is the addition of Booboo, Tuti, Oliver and Tony often too!

I'm honored to have one of your cats named after me (Tony, although I am a Toni) and one is almost named after my boyfriend's nick name, Boo Bear. Bill's horse was named Boo Boo, and unfortunately the horse died about 4 years ago.

As much as I love the whole brood, it does make it a bit painful to roll over at night. With all of them sleeping along my body, legs etc I can't always move comfortably. Especially since the knee replacement. I thought that they would relieve the pain, but there is more pain with the new knee then there was with the old one. I keep thinking of going into the orthopedic surgeon and asking for my old knee back...just to see the look on his face. I am thankful that I broke Abby's (the pit/lab mix)habit of sleeping in bed with people. She weighs about 75 pounds and in a super single bed it would be a bit much.

I just had a thought...(okay no jokes) but if you could get all the cats purring hard when you're in bed you could have a massage unit like in some of the motels. You know the ones where you drop in a quarter and they vibrate for 15 minutes. (Mom did that in one of the motels we stayed in. She woke up about three in the morning and it was still vibrating! We had to unplug the unit because it just wouldn't stop. When we got up the next morning and plugged it back in and it kept on going and going and going.)

Bill and I have been discussing it at length...in our opinions it is a hell of a high price to pay for the loss of a friendship! Neither of us are interested or will be interested in reconciling the friendship. I have a few more people to contact about the sewing machines that I sold them, but otherwise I am fairly well prepared for court. I just and trying to decide if I should feel sorry for the couple or not. Probably not because their life is centered around MONEY, and not friends or such. You can never talk to them where they aren't talking about money in one form or another.

I do get such a kick out of how "feeling" our well loved animals are. Like Kissy, she is not only comforting you, but getting comfort from you. You'll notice that she will continue to do things that she hasn't done before, simply because she is unsettled at the loss of Pyewacket. It was like Mom's dog Charlie. He was born at the house and lived there for all of his life. He was father's dog even though he didn't like my father much. When father had the strokes and was in the hospital and then died, Charlie would check the vehicles when we came home looking for father. We took a trip to Florida to see my grandmother and we went to Epcot and the dogs had to be in their kennel. We had problems getting Charlie into the kennel but we did finally manage to do it. When we picked him up three days later he seemed to have changed. We finally figured it out. He decided that because father was such an a$$hole Mom must have hauled him to the kennel and left him there. Charlie never looked for father again...much to our amusement.

I have never been without cats. I depend a LOT on them. I trust their opinion of friends and how they react around them. If they won't go near the person or hiss at them I know that I don't want too much to do with them. If they are in the person's lap and purring and loving the person I know I can trust them.

The wonderful thing about cats and dogs is that their love is unconditional with absolutely NO strings attached. When I divorced my husband and then was raped a week later my cat is the one that kept me going and caring about something. She was there to rub my tears away with her head, purr me to sleep, and to give me a reason to come home. She was awesome. She died about 12 years ago at the ripe old age of 21.

Willy is my favorite. I try hard not to have favorites in among the herd, but Willy stole my heart. He isn't a beautiful cat, like Khuay (the cat in my avatar) but his beauty comes from within. He is rather stocky and has bags under his eyes. He is built like a hot rod with the big tires in the back and the little ones up front. I'm fairly sure that if I hadn't adopted the two (Khuay and Willy) Willy wouldn't have gotten a home.

He not only is my constant companion, but when I leave the house he waits beside the door on the back of the couch. As soon as I come in the door a paw reaches out and grabs my sleeve and pulls me to look at him and give him some love. He also does that when it's feeding time. He perches on the cat food container and reaches out with his paw and grabs your arm, then he gives you a pleading look like "I'm starving, don't you love me???" It always gets him some cat food.

Gee, I could talk forever about my critters. I've got four inside cats, three dogs (2 mini Dachshunds and a pit/lab mix) and another four outside cats (Ralphie, Harlo, Indy, and Jonesy.) So I don't have to go far for a purr, kiss, rub, or bark.

I love your discussions about Gissi! He is such a wonderful friend and you're so lucky to have him. Each of the responses has proven to me time and time again that the scientists are full of crap when they say that animals don't think or feel emotions like humans (of course I feel that those scientists are pompous twits anyhow!). Our furry buddies are so tuned into us and know when we really need them to be close and be company.

When my father had to have open heart surgery and retire from his job, my Mom told my dog that it was his job to look after my father. The dog took it seriously and wouldn't let my father out of his sight. One day my father managed to sneak off without the dog and the dog went nuts wanting to find my father. What was so funny about it was that father would release burps that would rival explosions. The dog had finally settled down a little bit and Mom got a soda and drank it. Well you guessed it, she let rip with a belch that rivaled my father's. The dog was up out of a sound sleep and to the door in one bound. You could tell that his first thoughts were "Daddy's home!!!" Needless to say the dog was very disappointed when he got to the screen door and my father wasn't there. But until the day that dog died, he was father's guardian dog. He even slept on father's side of the bed so father couldn't get out of bed without his knowing father was up.

Even now I look down the couch and Khuay has pulled guard duty. (He's the one in my avatar) Each of the cats switch the duty so none of them have to hang with me too long, although they don't seem to mind being close.

These Babies have more sense and feelings then most Humans and they are the best Friends anyone can have
Us Pets Lovers know that
Hugs

You sound so much like me when I was growing up. At that time it was a collie that was my companion and would be there to make me feel better. I would be crying and there would be her long long nose right by my face kissing away the tears. The collie died when I was 16 (she had to be around 15 herself).

I developed a deep love for cats and it never died. I have always been lucky to have cats that have been great sympathizers and were very tuned into my moods.

I had gotten a wonderful kitten, Pickles, while I was married to my first husband. Pickles was going to be a wonderful companion, he started off being more like a dog than a cat following me everywhere-even on my walks. Unfortunately my father accidentally ran him over. My parents wanted to replace him immediately, which wasn't what I wanted but I finally said yes. I ended up with a cat that I wasn't ready for but put up with him. It took nearly a year before he finally crept into my life and made me love him. He was with me for 12 years and died in his sleep one night. That was over 29 years ago.

Now, with the crew I have I never lack for a cat (or dog) who will be there beside me giving me their unconditional love. I can't even visualize how my life would be without my dogs and cats...and I never want to even try to visualize it either. Right now, Khuay (the cat in my avatar) is on the back of the couch sleeping with his tiger.