Cats epitomize communication. We are body language sharing constant dialogue through every delicate paw caress, ear swivel, whisker twitch, and tail gesture. We convey volumes with the subtle insinuation of muscle gliding under fur. You can read a phrase in the tilt of a cat’s head; a sentence in the narrowing or widening of her eyes; a paragraph in her posture. But the full story is a mystery that eludes description when anyone attempts to define her enigmatic presence.
Science is proving what generations of people have known: cats are healers. We purr at consistent frequencies between 25 and 150 Hertz. Studies have revealed that our purring promotes wound healing, bone growth, muscle repair, pain relief, and reduction of swelling. A ten-year study of nearly 4,500 Americans at the University of Minnesota Stroke Center found that participants who shared their lives with cats were 40 percent less at risk of dying from a heart attack than those who did not own cats. This same research found that a feline presence relieves stress and anxiety so effectively that owning a cat reduces the individual’s risk of having a stroke by more than a third.
WebMD states that even a few minutes spent with a cat relieves anxiety and stress. The human body actually goes through physical changes during this interaction. Cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, is lowered, while the body’s production of serotonin, a chemical neurotransmitter associated with 
comfort, happiness, and security, increases.
Our purpose is yet more profound. We are healers of the spirit. I John 4:8 states that God is Love. Animals are spiritual beings created by God. He placed His Love in its purest caliber, its most precious innocence, its most unconditional offering, its most complete trust, in each of us.
Love recognizes Love; thus the feline spirit communes with the human soul. Our inherent form of communication, our calming presence, constantly proves that quietly being there for someone shares the language of the heart more eloquently than any spoken tribute.
We soothe broken spirits. We heal broken hearts. We are joy in the midst of sorrow, peace in chaos, assurance that you are never alone. We demonstrate that you don’t have to be afraid. If you need to know how to trust, how to believe, how to grasp the meaning of complete and utter faith, look into the eyes of your beloved feline companion.
Take your time. Study her. Understand her. Truly comprehend the trust, belief, and absolute faith she has in you. Be amazed and humbled at the sacred gift of pure, unconditional love that she is.
Then turn your eyes toward Heaven, and look at God with the same open, trusting heart that your cat, passionately and with complete abandon, opens to you.
Because life’s bed of roses is barbed with thorns. The sweetest of moments can leave both humans and cats bleeding and torn amidst realities that cannot be changed, healed, or repaired. God’s presence ensures that we will not endure these trials alone, though people are given that choice. Humans are the only creatures who ever choose the spiritual death of self-imposed isolation.
But humans have a spiritual example to follow out of abandonment, abuse, poverty, pain, sickness, helplessness, incomprehensible loss, and fear. Your feline companion will quietly assure you: “God is here. Love is here.”
“I am here.”
