Sophie has this one trait which makes her the most loveable cat in the world: she automatically purrs when we touch her. She is instantly happy at any show of affection.

As an aside, I am amazed that she is the most people-loving cat I have ever known: the animal we rescued was completely feral. Can you even imagine how this situation would be for a human being? It's like being taught all your life that grizzly bears will only hurt you and to stay away from them if you value your life…and then being forced to live in their den.

Anyway, Sophie has been with us for almost all of my surgeries, and she has been my faithful nurse through many recoveries. I always feel better when she snuggles up to me and seems to know exactly what hurts…and how to make me forget pain. I think we've all seen or at least heard of studies that find people live longer when they have a cat. A lot of the theories center around the relaxation that humans experience as the result of their purr—and relaxed humans live much longer than stressed humans.

But the healing qualities of a cat's purr are more than emotional. Cats purr at a frequency that is known to be a catalyst for bone and muscle regeneration. The frequency is also suspected to have anesthetizing qualities. This is part of the reason that cats are fabled to have nine lives: they can heal themselves from serious injury.

At my last post-op from my hysterectomy, a pattern finally occurred to me. All of my surgeons have always commented with a tinge of surprise how well my tissues heal—this has been true for all of my various procedures except for the first two when we were a catless household. (In fact, I healed so poorly from my first surgery that I needed the second for medical intervention.)

I am willing to give Sophie credit for helping me fight these battles at home. Maybe this is her way of saying, "You saved me…now I save you."