Favorite Old Post from 2-08

I'm reposting one of my favorites that originally appeared Feb. 24, 2008. It is about Jamal the last cat I lived with.
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I recently read a thing on the internet about a woman with chronic pain that got little relief from medications but her cat’s purring gives her some relief and contentment. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/HeartDiseaseCenter/story?id=4325718&page=1 I was reminded of Jamal, the last cat I owned. He did not cuddle or sit on my lap. Most of the time I owned him I worked the night shift on a locked psych unit. We worked twelve hour shifts. Once in a while I would come home in the morning feeling unusually worn out and overly abused. I would get into bed and call Jamal. He would usually be in the kitchen looking out the window. But if I called him from the bed he would slowly make his way to the bed and lay in it for a while. He would lay about a foot from me as if he was afraid I’d roll over on him or we’d get too close. But I came to notice that on those days when I was feeling really down he would reach out one paw and touch my hand. It was his way of being healing. And it helped that this self-reliant cat with such good boundaries was there for me. He’s been gone since 2002 but I still miss him and I use pictures of him on my desktop sometimes.