This article bothers me, because it feels like it is trying to make this more complicated than necessary. “I don’t think we have any studies that are like, I s

This article bothers me, because it feels like it is trying to make this more complicated than necessary. “I don’t think we have any studies that are like, I sat with a purring cat on my broken leg for 15 minutes a day; I healed more rapidly than someone else,” That may be true, but I guarantee anyone with a cat has been part of a "purr circle." I was sick about a month ago, and all of my cats knew it before I did and made a point to stay extra close and then to pile on me when I finally did go to bed to rest for the day. When one of our cats was near his end, those last few days they held vigil the same as you or I might around someone in hospice. Is the purring therapeutic? Hard to say, but to the cat it clearly holds ritual. >Nor can experts say, exactly, what purring means. This is an odd thing for the article author to write, when they then proceed to demonstrate what any cat owner knows - cats purr for a variety of reasons and the human has to interpret based on the context. They purr when they are happy, they purr when they are scared, they purr when someone is sick, they purr to entice you to give treats. Wouldn't surprise me if the frequency is someday found to be different between purr types or some other nuance that might not be obvious. I've observed that a happy purr is often more sustained than a scarred purr.