This was our cat, Judy. The most personable, feisty, smartest dog we ever had. She was a Japanese bobtail (who finds a J bobtail in Missi'ppi?) who wagged her tail like a dog; if she was awake she got up to greet me when I came into the room and her tail wagged ferociously all the time. She panted when she ran a lot, hanging her tongue out with her mouth open when fatigued. The picture below is of her "talismans". They were her favorite toys. Whenever we'd have "strangers" visit, she'd hurriedly assemble them from all over the house running at a fierce pace, and drop all four of them at the doorway to the bedroom, where she'd hide until either she calmed down enough to come out, or the visitor left.
This cat was so smart, when she played chase games with the other cats, she'd run from the left of this photo across 15 feet of tile, jump up and bounce off the wall (just out of sight on the right of this photo), and haul ass into the bedroom. All the other cats would Keystone cops-slide into the wall and slam it, then run in place to gain traction and resume the chase. Judy looked like Bo Jackson:
When I'd leave town for a coupla weeks, my wife said Judy would only sleep under the covers at the foot of the bed on my side. (She never slept under anything, ever.) We lost her to liver cancer. Even during her last two days (over the weekend) without food or water (a LOOONG time for a cat to have no water) she dragged herself up to follow me from room to room. I mostly carried her on that last Sunday. It was a shame and my privilege to put her down, Feb 13, 2017.