The following is a list of what CATS do for us:

• Warm our laps
• Give us someone to talk to
• Help reduce blood pressure
• Create a kindred feeling with other “cat people”
• Turn common household objects like bottle caps and twist ties into toys
• Make us more aware of birds
• Donate their services as alarm clocks
• Display daring acrobatic feats right in front of our eyes
• Contribute to living a longer life
• Make a window sill more beautiful
• Keep mice, lizards, spiders and flies on the run
• Make us smile and laugh
• Inspire poets and playwrights
• Teach us how to land on our feet
• Let us indulge our desires to really spoil someone
• Make our homes warmer
• Remind us that life is mysterious
• Share with us the all-is-well experience of purring
• Instruct us in the luxurious art of stretching
• Show us how to lick our wounds and go on
• Open our hearts
• THE CAT AUTHORS AND I CO-AUTHORED THE NEXT EIGHT BULLETS:
• Teach us how to transition, within seconds, from a 35 mph cheetah-like race around & through the house to a peaceful nap
• Give us structure for the "daily must-dos":  provide healthy meals and water; clean food bowls/litter boxes; groom and play
• Give us giggling fits when we play
• Decorate and renovate our homes with our cat/s in mind (places to hide, cat trees, cat furniture, cat walks, cat exercise wheel, etc.)
• Surprise us when we discover where they have deliberately or inadvertently concealed their "toys/prey" (bottle caps, paper clips, money, batteries, buttons, cosmetics, jewelry, credit cards, etc.).  Anything that we leave on counters, table-tops, that we drop or that they can reach makes a fun game for them.  In our house, their "toys: are generally discovered under clothes washers and dryers, closed closet doors, beds, behind couches, chairs and cabinets, etc.  I have learned their fav concealment places...but I still get surprised when I discover a new stash.
• Teach us about love and patience
• Appreciate their sensitivity, concern and/or compassion when we are ill or not feeling well
• Teach us responsibility for another’s life and well-being:  learn to recognize when they are ill or injured, when to seek treatment, how to nurse/help them and, if necessary, work through the how, why and when to ‘let go’ (specifically the impossibly difficult decision to euthanize if our precious cats are suffering and cannot get better).

Information for this article was obtained from naturesync.com/-zoomastr/cats/cathumor.html.  Please note that the Cat Authors and I conspired to co-author the list's last eight bullets based on lessons learned from and for each other.