My Furkids 
I first came across the term “furkid” at The Word Spy (http://www.wordspy.com). The Word Spy is a web site dedicated to gathering new words and phrases. They define a furkid as, “A pet treated as though it were one's child”. My two cats are furkids.
My cats are more than mere pets. I talk to my cats, often in baby talk, certain that they understand. I eat breakfast with them. I have my yogurt, they devour their hairball-control treats. They know what the doorbell and phone ring mean: “Get out of the way—she's gonna run for it!” When I drive to Florida to visit my parents, I take both cats with me.
One cat, Sweetie Pie, understands more than my words. He understands the deeper meaning behind the words. If I tell him, “Hey! Don't climb on that pile of books!”, he knows I mean, “Go ahead! Knock over those books!” “What are you doing in there?” means, “Dump that soap in the sink”. I should have named him Mischief Maker.
The Word Spy has documented another phenomenon common to Sweetie—cat typing. Cat typing describes the random keystrokes made by a cat walking across a computer keyboard. Sweetie loves playing on the computer as much as I do. One day soon, his paws will stop cat typing and start sending emails.
My other cat is Puff the Timid (officially, Cream Puff). He has an excellent understanding of what I do. He hides the minute I load a packed suitcase in the car. He knows what's next on the list. He'll be thrust into the pet carrier and loaded in the car too. Every trip, I spend 30 frustrating minutes finding and catching him. I can't even fool him by packing the car a day in advance. He's utterly hidden ten minutes before I get out of bed on travel day.
Puff's time-telling skills don't just apply to travel days. Fifteen minutes after my morning alarm blares, he climbs on top of me and meows to be petted. He does that even without the alarm. I've over-slept once in the last five years. He also knows dinner time. Starting at 6:00pm, he'll come find me and meow at me. He'll return for the meowing every 30 minutes until he's been fed.
Neither furkid has taken up cross-stitching yet. I remain hopeful. Puff has been known to unravel a skein or two of floss. And Sweetie Pie enjoys plunking himself down in the middle of a pattern to study it.