Another vote for ragdolls; they seem to suit your need perfectly. I think that my ragdoll would be in heaven if placed in the middle of a daycare center. He’s not too bright, though… still rolls on his back to get tummy rubs at the vet’s office (because he doesn’t remember that the vet gives him those nasty shots).
I agree with everyone here: cats adopt you; it’s just the way of the world.
Many years ago, I lived in a small house in Woodville, FL. The house was quite a qays off the main road, and as I turned in I saw a small grey cat walking thru open meadow in front of my house. The dirt drive kind of curled around like a capital C, and I watched he walk as I drove. She was heading in the general direction of my house, and although she never quickened her pace, she was about 10 feet from my front door as I unlocked it. She walked right in, sat down on the kitchen floor, and started purring. I left the door open for more than an hour, and she never made a move to leave, so at that point I figured I better go get her some food and a water dish.
Graham (her name was a play on her long, vaguely striped grey fur, and her penchant for graham crackers) was with me for 13 years, always keen to sit on my lap and hold my book up for me while I read. She was so pretty it almost hurt to look at her. She had a beautiful voice, chirping at me every morning to let me know it was time to get up and feed her.
She and Mao have a place together, now that they’ve passed on. Mao’s mother, Bubeleh, was the one who adopted me (and my girlfriend), but these 2 girls were just amazing, spectacular creatures and I was lucky that they picked me of all the humans in this world.
Go to the shelter. Sit on the floor, let the kittens tumble over you, and see which one(s) decides they like you. At least two lives will be better for it; I guarantee it.
I’ll take your basket cats and cats in sinks and raise you with kitten wars . It is the A-Bomb of cuteness.
That’s the kind of cat I have. Technically, they are “mackerel coated tabbies,” the original wild phenotype of the domestic cat.
Definitely NOT Maine Coon
– CalMeacham, who has a band-aid on his index finger from an attack this morning. Midnight was touchy because she thought she was being boxed in by Clarence, our other Maine Coon.
The only advice I have on temperment is to not get your cat declawed. I’m convinced that it screws with their personality. I know that our cats get comfort from scratching their posts, they go there when stressed or scared. Declawed cats can’t do that, can’t defend themselves except by biting, it’s not conducive to them being happy well adjusted cats.
Agreed. My family has owned many cats, and the Maine Coons were by far the best companions. Friendly, affectionate, and playful.
I would caution against letting them outside though; they can be rather voracious, and disgusting, hunters. (I’m of the opinion cats should be inside pets anyway, unless they’re working animals on a farm.)
My cousin’s Bengal (who was going to be mine, but for some reason, we didn’t take her) learned how to swing from the ceiling fan. She’d jump onto the dining room table, onto the back of a chair, and then hook her paws around the ceiling fan. She didn’t seem to care if the fan was on or off, either.
I never believed my mother when she told me…until I went to my cousin’s house and saw it myself. I love that cat, but damn, she scares the crap out of me.
I’ve got two shelter babies myself, and yeah, they picked us, too (they were only about 7-8 weeks old at the time). My roommate and I got them in Brooklyn, and we’ve always said that fate was on our side that day, because we were NOT supposed to be allowed to take home two cats of two different sexes from different litters. Now they’re 7 years old, happy, healthy, and spoiled rotten house cats. (I can’t get to pics at work, unfortunately).
I’m all about the shelter cats.
E.
The nicest cat I ever had was a Maine Coon kitten we bought last November. Lucy was not only gorgeous but remarkly friendly. Unfortunately the breeder’s vet had not done his job. I took her to my vet who told me she had a serious heart murmur. The breeder and I brought her in for further testing only to find out that she had three separate heart defects and only a 50% chance of surviving past two! 
After a long and agonizing discussion I decided to return her to the breeder. We are adopting another Maine Coon next month. I’ve been to several cat shows and never met one that wasn’t very sweet.
My other cats have all been healthy shelter adopted babies. The youngest died at roughly 15. My current cat was adopted as a kitten from a shelter. After he walked right over and sat in my lap I knew he was the perfect cat for us. He spends his days sitting in my lap and staring out the window at the birds.
If you go the shelter routine I heartily agree that you should look outgoing cats if you want one that has a nice temperament. Avoid cats that are shy because they will probably continue act that way once you get them home.
Orange tabbies or white with orange tabby patches. But I’d say a mutt that you get fairly young will be pretty friendly.
We’ve had two orange tabby points and 1 cream tabby and they’re just insanely friendly. Like dog-friendly. My father even taught one of them how to do little tricks (shaking hands, standing up, playing dead etc.).
My experience with declawing cats (after having done so to 13 cats over the course of many years) is that it has no lasting effect on their personality at all.
My cats still play, still knead when they purr, and still make that scratching/stretching motion at the carpet. The difference is that my arms, legs, furniture, and carpet aren’t torn up. I can hold my cats to give them medicine or clean their ears or examine their teeth without coming out of looking like I ran a marathon through a thicket.
My cats don’t go outside, so they don’t need to defend themselves against anything. I don’t know what you do in your house, but my cats don’t get stressed or scared; they spend like 20 hours a day sleeping on my bed or in my chair. My cats are very happy, very well adjusted, and I would (and will) do it again with any new cats who decide to live with me.
<I had a longer post written, but the hamsters ate it and I dint feel like trying to retype everything. #@%$in’ hamsters.>
Declawing is really a GD topic (if not a PIT) around here, as it REALLY gets into a serious “cat-fight” 
. However, I’ll counter state that none of my cats have ever been de-clawed (just trimmed on a regular basis) and MY arms, legs, furniture, and carpet aren’t torn up. AND **I ** can hold my cats to give them medicine or clean their ears or examine their teeth without coming out of looking like I ran a marathon through a thicket. Yes, a couple of times when my cats have been on my shoulder or being carried and they were panicked by a loud noise I have been clawed , but my cats have simply been well trained, well behaved and well trimmed and thus de-clawing wasn’t nessesary. YMMV. But trimming & training will remove the “need” to de-claw in 99% of cats, IMHO.
I’ll ad thast, despite my band-aid of this morning, we regularly wash our oldest cat without any special gear (Pepper Mill has done it nude. I’ve only gone so far as to strip to underwear). because her tail’s broken and she sometimes needsd a wash. She howls piteously, but puts up with it without scratching.
I don’t know if it’s stupidity or love that makes mine tolerate the treatment he gets around here. We love him to death and would never try to harm him. But he’s so damn affectionate, that he’s just always RIGHT THERE! Everybody in the family has walked across him both with and without shoes. I roll my desk chair over him atleast once a day. We trip over him, then fall ontop of him. I spill things on him when I’m trying to prepare a meal. And he just stays put, and looks at us with adoration.
I wasn’t trying to start the whole claw/declaw debate, but if one person was going to put their $.02 in on the subject, I didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t. I’m done.
Cockatiel, don’t forget that we will want pictures!
Are you quite sure that you’ve never done it nude?
Um, the actual cat in a basket, not the cat while out of the basket. Dur.
Yeah, I forgot to mention the “very active” part. My parents have two Bengals (that’s one of them in the photo I posted). When they were kittens, they literally climbed the walls. The one in the photo was once found hanging from a skylight, a good 15 feet or so above the stairs (there was a wall at the top of the stairs that he must have jumped from, but no one was quite sure how we were going to help him if he turned out to be as stuck as he initially appeared to be. He managed to get down on his own.) I’m convinced that a cougar sighting near my parents’ house a couple of months ago was actually their cat. They’re now 9 years old, and they’re only just starting to show signs of mellowing.
However, they’re extraordinarily friendly beasts who firmly believe that everyone on the planet loves them. They approach complete strangers looking for affection - I’ve even seen one of them hop into strangers’ laps.
I have “fostered” cats for my local animal shelter/humane society, and the last one I had , a Persian male (neutered) was absolutely one of the sweetest-tempered cats I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
He wasn’t content to just lie beside me in bed. He wanted to lie right in the crook of my arm or even as close to my neck as he could get, and he would lie very still and just go to sleep.
Before he came along, I had never had a cat that would do that, and so I kind of “shied away” from the “closeness” he offered at first, but when I saw that was what he wanted, I got used to it.
That’s what we’re supposed to do as their humans, isn’t it? 
I was sorry to see him go. He was “relayed” up to Massachusetts this past weekend from here in Dallas.
Viel Glück, Claude.
Thanks
Q
My Luna picked me out at the shelter.
Mr. Neville and I went to a no-kill shelter in our town, “just to look”. One of the cats looked up at me from the room she was in, and meowed really loudly at me. When I went into the room to see her, I picked her up, and she started licking my face. I knew she was going home with us at that point…