cats

This is very true. I had a cat that recently passed away at 17. While I've had cats my entire life, none had an attachment like this one. It followed commands and would dote around me like a dog. He would even get upset if I gave other cats more attention than him. So naturally we bonded more since it was easier to bond with this cat as he sought attention. So there was a cycle of him paying attention to me so I paid attention to him. Now I want to be clear, my other cats also loved me very much, but this was different.

So when it was his time, it was one of the saddest things I ever experienced. Other cats when they passed away would try to hide, apparently this is a natural instinct to protect their families from disease and predators when they leave a corpse. But not this cat. All he wanted was to be by my side as he was passing away. It was clear he knew and would meow when he couldn't find me, which was largely because he couldn't really move since he was dying. When the vet came to put him down, his last action was to look around the room to make sure the whole family was there, then he rested his head and waited for his end. That was heart breaking. His love for me and our family was so great that he went against his own base instincts, I have never seen that before.