National Hug Your Cat Day 2022
By: Brianna MacLean, Cub Brand Ambassador

The Cambridge dictionary defines a soulmate as “someone who you have a special relationship with, and who you know and love very much.” As cheesy as it might sound, I didn’t understand what this really felt like until I adopted my cat.

I rescued Fig Newton “Figgy” MacLean from Furget Me Not Animal Rescue in September 2021; brought in as neonatal orphan with his two big brothers, the first three months of sweet Figgin’s life was an uphill battle that might have knocked a lesser animal onto their furry butts. Already the runt of his litter, Fig was severely underweight for his age when he was initially rescued, to the dire point where his survival beyond a few months was in serious question. Despite enduring so much hardship in such a short period of time, Fig remained a joyful and loving soul who loves to play as much as he loves to cuddle. His happy-go-lucky purr-sonality was obvious in the picture that my mother saw on Furget Me Not’s Facebook page; the same picture that she sent to me with the subject line, “I think you two are meant to be.” And as per usual, she was right.

All it took was one in-person meeting for me to recognize that fate had brought Figgy and I together, and he was cuddled up on my lap at home being spoiled like the fuzzy prince that he was destined to by the end of the night. The connection was instant, with it becoming abundantly clear to me that the idea of a soulmate is not restricted to human romantic partners. 

This feeling is becoming more and more common for people, with an average of 3 out every 10 Canadians adopting animals such as cats, a number that has significantly increased since 2020 for good reason: between the emergence of a worldwide pandemic and what feels like a near-constant stream of news and events that seem specifically designed to stress you out, sometimes what you really need is to hug a cat.

Some of the benefits of regularly hugging and cuddling your cat include strengthening the bond between pet parents and their fur babies, and an overall improvement to our mental health, both of which are direly needed to combat the steady stress-inducing chokehold that COVID-19 has kept us in for over two years now. Additionally, a recent study also reported that constant cuddles with kitties are not only the purr-fect opportunity improve your emotional and mental state, but also boost our immune systems through the increased production of our bodies’ natural “happy” chemicals such as endorphins and dopamine!

So, while June 4th might be National Hug Your Cat Day, I can’t see any downside to making cuddles with your best fur-rend part of your daily routine!