Got home from a work event and immediately buried my face in my cat's fur for 20 minutes and honestly that's my entire coping strategy

Mandatory networking thing today. Three hours of small talk and pretending to be a functional human who enjoys "mingling." Heart pounding the entire time. Hands so sweaty I was scared to shake anyone's hand. Hid in the bathroom twice just to breathe and stare at myself in the mirror like a crazy person. Got home and didn't even take off my shoes. Just sat on the kitchen floor and held my cat while she purred and probably judged me. She doesn't care that I'm awkward. She doesn't need me to ask about her weekend or pretend to care about quarterly projections. She just exists and somehow that resets whatever short circuits in my brain when I'm around people. Been doing this for years but lately I'm wondering if this is like... an actual thing? Or am I just weird? Someone at work has an emotional support animal and I always assumed that was just an excuse people use to bring pets on planes or whatever. But maybe it's actually something legitimate? Anyway. Sitting here at 11pm covered in cat hair still wearing my work clothes feeling slightly less like I want to disappear. Small victories.