Cats are incredible this way.
I will add here. I have a cat, a wonderful cat. Her name is Tatiana. I adopted her in 2020 from the local shelter, when I realized that thanks to the Pandemic I wouldn't be travelling as much as before, and could take on a new cat.
In my neighborhood, there are a LOT of cats that roam around. Two of them have become my part time cats. One is a male orange tabby, whose owners have named Tony. He's affectionate, and occasionally spends the day or sometimes the night with me. The other is a petite long-haired female, whom I call Sonia. She has spent the night with me pretty much every single night for at least the last month. I do not feed her, because I don't want her to think I'm her primary human. She does search my house for food, and I've learned to hide food from her. She is a very sweet and cuddly cat, and spends the night curled up next to me in bed, purring. Right now, she is here and I know she'll be spending the night with me. Hooray!
What I love best about cats is the purring. Tatiana LOVES to purr, and will sit on the top of my couch, purring for a very long time. I of course pet her, praise her, encourage her.
Tatiana, my official cat, is sweet but never sits on my lap. Sigh. Essentially she's not crazy about being touched. I keep on telling my son that I will send this cat to her, because he does not like to be touched either. I can just picture the two of them in a room, looking at each other, not getting closer, not touching.
Nonetheless, I love cats, was dragging stray cats home when I was three years old, and no matter how senile I might get, I will never not want to have cats in my life. I've told my son that if he needs to put me in some kind of home, just in case I don't participate in that decision, make sure it is a place with resident cats.
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