Cats are ideal for hectic people IMHO they are friendly and soothing, like company but on their terms, so if your away for a few hours they usually don't mind.
We went out a couple of months back and did not realise Henry( our tom cat) was asleep on the chair, 4 hours later we returned turned the burglar alarm off and found him asleep in the chair. So he obviously had not moved in all that time :roll: