Do Cats Get Headaches?

Last night I had a migraine.  Not your run of the mill headache.  This pain was epic.  Right between my neck and my temples...basically, my entire head.  It had a pulse.  I can imagine that it also was creating its own light source--red with an angry orange shooting out like lava from my ears.  I was thrashing around on my bed like a fish that had been hooked and dragged onto a boat.  Begging for mercy from the pharmaceutical geniuses of the world, I grabbed several containers of my favorite pain cocktails and poured myself a mixer of muscle relaxers and pain-be-gone and just lay there for at least 45 minutes staring at the ceiling waiting for deliverance. 

In this wild state of wacky medicinal la-la-land, I thought about my poor kitties at home in the heat without me.  I am on vacation (yes, what a great way to spend the night!!) and they have no one there to share their day with.  But then I thought about all the times I find them all curled up sleeping in little circles with their precious paws covering their eyes and wonder...do cats get headaches?  I mean, how would we know if they did?  They always wander around with a kind of devil-may-care attitude.  But how many times do we pay attention when they are REALLY trying to actively EVADE attention in that "I'm in pain" passive kind of way?  Those are the precise moments they look the most adorable and I can hardly resist picking up the little oom-foo-foo and feeling the body go limp and the tiny meow of protest.  Isn't that sweet?  So precious.

But maybe what we ought to be doing is massaging their little temples. Or their paws. You know all our nerves end in our feet and they have FOUR so if we can learn cat reflexology then if you can find a cat that allows you to massage its feet without ripping you to shreds--maybe we can cure all kinds of diseases without paying those exhorbitant vet bills!  Just imagine that kitty with the spa treatment...its a relaxing image...my headache is starting to subside...

AHA!  I've just realized one of the keys to getting rid of MY migraines is to imagine a cat at a spa!  Or maybe that's the drugs?  Or a cat taking drugs?  Definitely things don't make as much sense as they did before all the muscle relaxers kicked in...I wonder if they had cats at opium dens?  I wonder if the first person who discovered the power of opium had a cat?

I think I feel a lot better now.  The pulsing in my head is gone and now I just feel like it's just a great big cotton ball.  Better than a throbbing ball of red hot lava.  But I know for sure the next time I see my kitty laying down with his paws over his eyes blocking out the light, I am going to respect his space and just let him snooze.  After all, he may be dreaming about giving me a massage.