“Cats don’t miss you when you’re gone” is a ton of bs. Whenever I leave to go anywhere, I can hear my cats meowing at the door within moments trying to find me. They sit in the window watching for me to come home and they are at the door to greet me almost every single time.

Cats also grieve.
This cat watches a video of their owner who had passed away and he tries to cuddle up with the phone. The look on his face when they zoom in on him brings me to tears every time.

One of our cats comes and sleeps next to me when he sees that I’m not feeling well. If he’s in the kitchen when I come down for food with cramps or with a cold, he’ll follow me back upstairs and lay down on me and purr.

Cats are aloof animals who don’t put up with nonsense, will defend their boundaries with claws, and sometimes like to push things down to see what happens, but they aren’t jerks.

Tashirojima, or as it’s more commonly known (for obvious reasons), “Cat Island” is a small island in Ishinomaki, Japan. With only approximately 100 people living on the island and thousands of stray cats, it’s a cat-lovers dream come true. It is believed that the population of cats thrives due to a belief that feeding cats will bring good fortune. Dogs are even prohibited from the island! In the middle of the island lies a small cat shrine. The story behind this shrine lies with the fishermen of the island. They said that the cats would come and beg for fish, and they would often give into the cats and feed them. On one occasion, the fishermen were collecting rocks for their fixed nets and one fell, killing one of the cats. Feeling guilty and upset about the loss of the cat, they buried it and built a shrine.