The temperament you are actually testing
A cat who supports a person's wellbeing at home does one thing above all: she offers calm, chosen closeness, repeatedly, on ordinary days. That means she must seek people out rather than merely accept them, settle against a lap or a leg and stay there, and recover quickly when the moment is interrupted by a doorbell, a dropped book or a visitor arriving. Tolerance is not enough — plenty of cats endure being stroked while quietly wishing to be elsewhere, and a cat in that state gives her person tension instead of comfort. What you are looking for is visible enjoyment: approaching, head-butting, kneading, choosing the occupied chair over the empty one.
Run several visits like small rehearsals
One meeting tells you almost nothing, because shelter stress flatters some cats into clinginess and pushes others into hiding. Visit at least a few times, at different times of day, and rehearse the real role. Sit still and see whether she comes to you uninvited. Stroke her for a sustained stretch, pause, and note whether she asks for more or leaves satisfied — both can be fine, but a cat who leaves after a minute is describing a companionship of short visits. Gently handle her paws, ears and tummy the way health checks will require. Introduce a mild novelty, like a new person entering, and watch her recovery: a cat who startles, looks, and resettles is showing the resilience the role needs daily.
Read her history for the home setting
At home, support work happens in specific situations: evenings on the sofa, a person resting in bed through illness, an anxious hour at the kitchen table. Ask the shelter or foster carer how she behaves across a whole day, not just in visits. Does she follow people from room to room or hold court in one favourite spot people come to? Has she lived with children, dogs or other cats, and did she seek or avoid the busiest room? A cat who already chose the company of a fosterer's household, night after night, has been auditioning for this role without knowing it. Equally, take a clear no seriously — a cat described as independent and aloof is not a failed support cat; she is a cat telling you her gifts lie elsewhere.
Keep the legal picture honest
It helps to be clear-eyed about what an at-home companion is and is not. A cat who comforts her own person at home needs no special certification to do that job, and you should be wary of anyone offering to register or certify her for a fee. Formal access rights and housing provisions differ by place and usually involve documentation from a health professional about the person, not training credentials for the cat. If a landlord or housing situation is part of your reason for asking, take advice on your local rules rather than relying on paperwork sold online. None of that changes the real evaluation, which is about whether this particular cat glows in the company she will spend her life in.
Protecting the cat in the role
A support cat's welfare is the foundation the whole arrangement stands on, so build her life so the job never becomes a burden. She still needs hiding places nobody follows her into, play that is about her rather than about cheering anyone up, and the freedom to walk away from an intense moment without being fetched back. Everyone in the home should learn her stop signals — the tail flick, the skin twitch, the quiet move away — and honour them, because a cat whose boundaries are respected keeps offering closeness willingly. Family Sharing on KinsLe is the way her profile reaches relatives you select, so access to it sits with family you have picked yourself.