22 comics featuring a wise cat with the best mental health advice

Hector Janse van Rensburg first began experimenting with watercolor one day in late 2011 when he was feeling particularly bored and depressed. Today, his comics have become a source of comfort for his fans online as the recurring feline character in his art offers words of wisdom for those depressing and deflating thoughts that many of us deal with. The motivational cat series is such a wholesome ray of sunshine in the otherwise dismal cyberworld that each comic feels like a miniature hug through our mobile phone screens. "The comics that came before this series were less optimistic, and this series is a bit like a response to that," Hector told Bored Panda.

"They sometimes approach difficult issues like mental health, but the aim of the comics is not to solve the issues but to show a different perspective on them. That new perspective often comes from the cat, who is based on my cat Ona who passed away a few years ago," he explained. "Before I started painting online about 8 years ago, I had never had any interest in art and now it looks like that's where my life is going. Ostensibly, that just means I'm sitting at my desk with a brush more often than a keyboard, but it is a whole different type of challenge to think of things about human nature that I want to communicate in my paintings."

"One part of that is that it's like I'm living through my art, which can be difficult," said Hector, adding that the ideas for his comics come from negative thoughts that can be turned into more positive ones. "So I think about the ways in which people can feel bad and how you might approach them as a friend would. I don't think I find it too difficult to think of ideas which is probably a testament to how nice my cat was," he said.

Here are 22 of his 'meowtivational' cat comics:

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