I lived abroad for quite a number of years and I had to leave my cats with my parents (the country I moved to had an extremely long quarantine and I just did not want to put them through that). Well, when I phoned I asked my mother to put the handset near them and everytime they started purring and "talking". Also, everytime I visited (roughly twice a year)they knew immediately who I was and it almost seemed like I never left, they were only a bit more clingy than usual