OK, just one more before we take off.

A cat saved its seven-year old owner from being raped.

The tendencies of cats towards independence and aloofness hides the fact that they can be as loyal to "their humans" as any dog. My cat can be a pain in the ass, but she knows when I'm not feeling well, and will not do her usual trick of jumping on my stomach to get my lazy self out of bed. (Hey, that's a lot from _my_ cat.) I also have a story about a cat of my acquaintance who saved a kitten from drowning in a canal. She actually jumped in, swam out to the kitten, and dragged it to safety. (The family that owned the cat also adopted the kitten, of course.) I also know someone whose house was robbed while they were out; one of the things they found when they got home was that one of their cats had blood on its claws: at least one of the thieves got a good scratching.