He's my buddy. I have a beard and I reserve it for him alone. He always rubs his head against it. It's our way of saying "you're mine".
He was a stray I picked up. He was all torn up and sickly. Took him to the vet and got him well (most expensive 'free' cat I've ever had!). Wouldn't trade him for the world.
My parents' next-door neighbor has a cat that was saved from a shelter. The previous "owner" apparently didn't want it anymore, so tried to strangle the poor creature. My mom pointed out that the dear thing has sort of a crooked neck from that attempt. I ran into it when I went to take out some trash, and it was sitting on the neighbor's porch. I started talking to it, and it came over, and was very friendly. Very beautiful cat.