She is a sweetheart, and happy?

It's a mother cat thing. I think it's a happy/comfort thing. We picked up a stray years and years ago who promptly popped out 5 kittens and she kneaded all the time after they were born and while they were nursing. I don't know if it's the hormones that causes them to do it, or what.

My male Persian that just past away last week did this every night on the bed on the comforter,than he went to lay down and sleep. He liked to do that at 4am too,waking us up. It was cute thou.Miss him terribly...........

Most of my cats knead..male and female. My big boy Henry gets on my lap and really goes at it till a clear bead forms at the end of his nose. He weighs 20 pounds and sometimes is rough. But I put up with it..love him to death.

At the shelter, a man surrendered a sweet cat that he had bought for his wife as a gift a few years before (already a bad beginning...). They had a baby. The man surrendered the cat because he said it was "punching" the blanket around the baby when they had the baby on the floor. He and his wife had no idea that the cat was a sweetheart and showing love for the baby.

This broke my heart, but the shelter easily and quickly got the cat a good home.

Another reason why you should not think shelters are death sentences for animals.

Another reason why you should not think shelters are death sentences for animals.
Absolutely! Local rescue group here in Tampa work with Animal Services shelter (our Humane Society is non kill for space) and pull as many adoptable animals out as they can. I just fostered four sweet kids, 6 week old babies when they came in - and all got adopted within the past week...One of my long time fosters I am having hard time partying with - an adult Siamese mix - was pulled from AS shelter as well...
BUT: Only a small percentage make it out of there. On the grand scheme of things, it IS a death sentence (and some just get lucky) :(

As for kneading...some cats just do it more than others. In one of the colonies we feed, a few cats are friendly...One of the friendlies, a female tabby (spayed) constantly moves her paws : she is kneading any time you pet her. It is so cute when they do it while standing - doing a "kneading dance"

My foster Tonie, a mom with 6 babies, kneads when she nurses ... {{!gwi}}From Tonie and the kids

You have a sweet foster kitty!
Olya

How darling is that?

Love those pictures....My Clancy comes to me during the night and has to knead on my upper arm...After that, he cuddles under the blanket and goes back to sleep...He's done this for years....We also are taking care of 3 semi feral cats and all 3, especially the mother, knead or constantly are moving their feet....We've been taking care of them for almost 8 years and I think they're happy cats.....

My 12 year old tomcat kneads when he is happy, making a complete mess of my trousers pulling threads out of them. I can tell who all the cat owners in my department at work are too, by the state of their clothes. I had to pull up one girl (in tatty, cat-kneaded trousers) who did not have her ID badge on display. 'Poppy ate it' was the reply I got. What could I say?

My male cat Basil does what irishdancer's Clancy does: he jumps up on the bed soon after I get in and kneads like crazy--determined and long--on the blankets on my upper arm. He seems to go into a kind of trance, purring and drooling with unfocused eyes. His sister cat, Sally, has never kneaded, as far as I can tell, in her life.

I meant to ask whether anyone has heard that kneading behavior actually comes from kittens kneading their mama's belly to make the milk flow?

That's the reason I always heard..making the milk flow.