If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.

There was no last animal I treated. When young farm lads started to help me over the gate into a field or a pigpen, to make sure the old fellow wouldn't fall, I started to consider retiring.

Over the years I knew her she always looked at me like that - as though I was a quite pleasant but amusing object - and it always did the same thing to me. It's difficult to put into words but perhaps I can best describe it by saying that if I had been a little dog I'd have gone leaping and gambolling around the room wagging my tail furiously.

If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.

I have felt cats rubbing their faces against mine and touching my cheek with claws carefully sheathed. These things, to me, are expressions of love.

No animal is a better judge of comfort than a cat.