This just reminded me of a good scene in the book The House in the Cerulean Sea. Minor spoiler, the character has a cat that chooses him.

Honestly it’s always something magical when a cat decides ah yes you are my human. It’s like the dark souls version of getting a dog. And thusly cats in a way are the peak of loyalty because no one else can win a cats favor.

I was at cat lounge/rescue/adoption place in my area recently (not to adopt, just to pet the cats) and one of the cats, a maybe ~7mo female tabby with a slightly fucked up ear named Maggie, after spending most of the time I was there hiding in a corner, decided she liked me, came up to me, sat down on my lap, and refused to budge. One of the staff members came up to say “hey man you’re at your time limit, but I can see you’re in a situation here so just… whenever is chill”