Just thinking it would make the cat worth keeping around if it raised mental health equivalent to a fire.

Right now the cat's just a food sink and contributes nothing beyond meowing every 2 minutes. (Bonus points if you also slow down it's hunger drain rate like other mods do so it only needs to eat every 80 in game hours so you can actually go explore Vostok and other far off maps without it starving in the mean time.)