the Chef household acquired two orange kittens a couple of months ago. They are now about seven months old and are already getting huge.
They both are super affectionate and want to drape themselves on me every chance they get. Dorito prefers to make me hold him while he hooks his front legs over my shoulder, while Cheeto would rather sit in my lap.
There have been many times in the last several weeks when I’ve really needed to get up from wherever I’m sitting to go and do something, but I’ve stayed put for a while because I didn’t want to disturb the cats. Eventually, of course, I have to dislodge them and get up; they give me reproachful looks and then keep me under surveillance so they can get back on me as soon as I sit down again.
It got me to wondering: those of you who have cats who are snuggly, if you find yourself in this circumstance, about how long will you inconvenience yourself to avoid disturbing your lapful of purr? For me, it’s anywhere from five minutes to as many as 10-12, depending on how urgently I need to get back to what I was doing.
Oh, I’ve been known to sit through entire TV shows to avoid dislodging the furballs. Especially the ones who don’t sit on me very much. When my little skittish girl tabby curled up in the crook of my arm a couple of months ago (for the first time, and she hasn’t done it again since) I sat there until she decided to get up. No way was I going to discourage her!
You know the rules, though–we need to see pictures of Dorito and Cheeto! (cute names, btw :D)
Minimal. We have four furry paperweights. If we didn’t get up for fear of displacing one of them we’d be bonded to the chairs by now. I used to let them be, and would avoid making them move on the bed at night until I added up the total amount of time they spend asleep each day.
Also minimal. If it’s the orange one, I might wait a few minutes, but he’s only that affectionate about once every six months. If it’s the black-and-white, I’ll try to keep him happy as I move, but I’m definitely going to move when I need to. If it’s the tabby, screw it. He’ll be back, and he’s probably going to bite me anyway. He gets no sympathy.
One of them has never had an inclination to sit on my lap. The other one used to, but he would jump off very unexpectedly and forcefully, digging his hind claws into my legs. So, in self-defense, I don’t let him on my lap. He doesn’t seem to miss it.
It depends on how generous I’m feeling that day. But usually no more than 1-2 minutes.
My two cats have turned into lap fungus, and the older of the two pretends to be my conjoined twin. They bitch when I get up, but as soon as I sit back down they’re on me again, so clearly it doesn’t bother them enough to give up the habit
Addendum that appleciders reminded me of: it does vary by furball. Havoc and Brindle get int our laps all the time, so they get booted fast. Pixel is usually so tuned into the lap that she will jump down if you even think about getting up. But Caelan is so lap-averse that I’ll stay seated a few extra minutes on the rare occasions he feels like lapping.
Chef Troy, your kitties are adorable! I have one who does what yours are doing in the picture–he just crawls up on me while I’m at the computer and plops down. We’ve reached an understanding–I prop his butt on the desk in front of me and let him drape over me. I can still type and read while he does that, and he gets to nap. Works out well.
My cat isn’t a true lap cap, but he does put himself as close to you as possible and braces up against you, throwing wistful looks over his shoulder. I’ll stay put for upwards of 30 minutes in the most awkward of positions for this eighteen pound furball.
The only lapkitty we have is our youngest, the death-by-claws stray.
We both will stay put as long as possible, because we’re trying to encourage her to be a lap-kitty, and to enjoy being petted and snuggling rather than “playing” with us by trying to amputate our hands at the wrists unexpectedly because she got bored.
It seems to be working, so we’ll continue to be patient with the lapsnatching.
My oldest kitty (picked up as a 4-week-old stray in 2005) is a super fraidy-cat, and he actually sat on my lap ONCE last year, for all of about a minute and a half while I skritched his chin. I was so thrilled that my hands were shaking. He hasn’t done it since then, but it was one of the best afternoons of my life. He HAS started sleeping on the bed with us, which is nice, but he takes up so damn much room. Still, I’m being nice because I’d rather be a little more uncomfortable at night to give him the chance to feel more confident and secure and restful in close proximity to me.
Generally the cat stays on the lap until I need to get up. However the definition of “need to get up” changes in the presence of a lapped cat. For example, “Honey, could you get me a glass of water, I would get it myself but I have a cat on my lap.” Is a purrfectly reasonable request.
Our cats are odd. One is a standard lap cat, but the other doesn’t like laps at all. He’s very affectionate, loves attention, likes being held and carried, and will curl up next to you or between your legs, but will jump over you in order to avoid walking across your body, and will struggle to escape if you sit down with him on your lap.
Taz, our Bengal, fights Higgs, the pug, to curl up between my feet on the recliner footrest. If Higgs manages to settle in first, Taz will get in my lap under whatever I’m knitting. And if Taz grabs the footrest, Higgs gets on the arm of the recliner, leaning against me. Both critters know that once I assume the knit position, I’m pretty much there till bedtime or nature calls. But I guess I’m cold and heartless, because when I want to get up, I get up. And when I sit back down, they tend to return to their positions.
My cats aren’t lap cats as much as they are beside-the-leg cats, which works well for me, because I get uncomfortable with something that hot percolating away in my lap. Six will lay nicely beside me all evening. Vivian, though, is never satisfied unless she’s digging her little weirdo claws into my legs, so she gets the boot pretty quickly.
