We live in a society where we are exposed to stress more or less every day. It can be a stressful day at work, it can be something difficult private or, in the worst case, your entire life situation that you get stressed about. Stress in small portions humans can usually handle, but when the stress goes over to anxious and you get depressed, it’s very difficult to get out of that mood. Sometimes we are exposed to stress without even thinking about it through our world which is digitizing very quickly, our reptilian brain doesn't really keep up with the momentum.

But then we have our little everyday heroes in our homes who save us, I'm talking about our cats. I would say that our cats are unpretentious even though maybe not everyone agrees with me. I have more or less lived with mental illness all my life and in 2018 I started talking openly about it. My greatest tribute was dedicated to Cooper and Kira who allowed me to survive life at this tough period of my life. Our entire story can be read here. But to make a long story short, I was diagnosed with acute depression that turned into depression and a few years later became anxiety.

Cooper and Kira have been in my life for over nine years. The best thing about cats is that even if your life is down to the bottom, the cats are always there by your side to lift you up. I usually call Cooper and Kira stubborn love machines. In my case, I shut down my entire social life when I felt the worst. Instead, my two stubborn love machines stepped forward and gave me love. They have always been my love machines that spread love to everyone. But why I add stubborn is because they never gave up on me.

I remember a special point when I sat on the couch apathetic and just looked into the wall. Kira sat on my lap and Cooper on my shoulder. Cooper started kissing my face which he's an expert on. I took him down from my shoulder and put him on the floor. A second later, he flew up onto my shoulder and continued to kiss my entire face. I took him down again from my shoulder and almost started to get a little annoyed. Kira sat calmly on my lap, just watching the spectacle. But I gave up, instead I let him continue to kiss my face. I started laughing and forgot about my anxiety.  Cats are extremely stubborn and we should be happy about that.

The cat knows a lot about us. When you live so close to each other, the cat learns our body language and intonation when we talk to them. Cats love routines and if these change, the cat immediately notices that something is not right. If we do not feel well, the cats notice this right away. Our stubborn love machines will do everything to put everything back in order.

I will never live without a cat in my life. Although as a single cat dad I can sometimes get a little locked up, I still only see the benefits. If you have an everyday hero at home, I think most people understand me, your cat is everything.

This is my tribute to all of our everyday heroes out there.