We had a cat that was friendly with my wife and kids, but she would never get up on my lap or anything. She would tolerate me petting her on the floor, and I could pick her up, but she never came up and just sat on my lap.
I came home after a very close call in the woods (a stick in my neck). While waiting to get hold of a doctor (I wasn’t bleeding, but was told by a country doctor that there could be unseen damage and the artery might burst) I was laying on the couch.
That cat came up and laid on my stomach! Never had done it before, or since.
I like to think it somehow knew I needed some comfort.
Either that, or it was waiting for me to die so it could eat me!
They know.