Some of it’s innate–I have a grandkid who is an absolute cat whisperer, loves them and they all love him too. He got a feral kitten to voluntarily emerge from a blackberry tangle to be rescued when he was still in grade school, strange cats will run right up to him and in spite of having up to 7 cats in the house he never has any scratches or bites. When I still had cats they’d vie to claim his lap the second he sat down in my house. He just has natural cat body language, I guess, he’s very calm and soft voiced and once a cat gets comfy on him he’ll stay motionless until the cat elects to get up and leave. It’s really cute. A lot of it’s just a person’s energy I guess.
My girl isn’t fazed at all by my playing with her primordial pouch. When she’s laying on me I’ll knead it and rearrange it with both hands. She also likes foot massages. If I go to the kitchen, she goes ahead if me and flops down right in front of me, so I can put my whole foot on her and move it around.