Feline Intuition

I just sprained my ankle. I needed to use the restroom, and I didn't realize that my left leg was asleep to the point that I had little feeling in it...so I got up and tried to walk. Putting my weight on my right leg was fine. But as soon as I transferred my weight to my left leg, my ankle twisted beneath me and I heard something snap. Tears flooded my eyes and a string of sounds made their way from my lips. I'm not sure what language I was speaking, but I didn't understand any of it...all I knew was blinding pain.

I have two cats. Two very sweet cats who have a tendency to get in the way when I'm trying to walk or otherwise do anything whatsoever. You would think that it was more likely to be their fault, but this time, they were blame free. At the garbled whimpering screams coming from my mouth, they came running to help me. I assume that the noise I was making was similar to the sounds that they make when I accidentally step fully on one of their paws or a tail.

They followed me as I stumbled my way to the sofa. I stretched out across the length of the sofa and propped my ankle up on a couple of throw pillows. Within seconds, they had both jumped up on top of me. Great, I thought to myself, this is going to be like when I get menstrual cramps and they automatically know to curl up on my abdomen, or when I get a chest cough and they curl up on my chest. In moments, they'll be curled up on my seriously hurting ankle and I won't be able to get them off of it. I don't mind it at all when they curl up on my abdomen...they provide heat and pressure, right where I need it. It's hard to breathe when you've got a chest cough though, and a couple of loveable furry friends pressing down on your lungs. I didn't think that was what I needed to be doing to my ankle at the moment.

But I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of going to my ankle, they came up to my chest and started purring. It seems that more than anything, they just knew that I needed them to help me calm down.