I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea. I found this kitten prowling around our complex one day. For a few weeks, I’d occasionally see her lounging in the grass, and I’d go over to say hi. Friendly little cat, with no collar where one clearly once was. The weeks passed, and it became clear this kitten had no owner, and she’d also taken a liking to me as she’d trot over to me bawling for treats without hesitation.
Eventually, and with some convincing by my roommate, I decided to make the effort to integrate her into the household. She adapted well to being inside, being clearly not feral, and wasn’t put off by the attitudes of the current lord and lady of the house. Cuddly, friendly, inquisitive, everything old man Bobby isn’t. Wonderful!
…Until night fell, anyway. We decided it would be best to keep her in my room overnight, and that’s when the trouble started. Affectionate though she is, she displays it by kneading my neck. Right in the jugular. If I fend her off, she merely goes after my cheek or ear. She must have been awake the entire night, and apparently any slight movement on my part meant I was ready to play and cuddle and get kneaded some more. I got maybe 15 minutes of sleep stretched out over 8 hours.
She doesn’t appear to want to play with any of the toys we currently have, so I couldn’t even wear her down before bed. My only hope lies in procuring fresh batteries for the laser pointer, which no creature can resist. With luck, I’ll get her worn down to where she just wants to sleep at night too.
She’ll probably outgrow that neck-kneading thing. All mine have done it when babies and then they stop. With the last one, I had good success with lumping up the covers and pillows around my head so he couldn’t get in there with his insatiable paws.
It only took a few months for him to stop. Good luck!
Mine still knead my stomach but not the neck, or at least not for 6 or 8 hours non-stop. One of them still marks his favorite sleeping spot as the area right between head/neck/shoulder. He’ll shove himself in there and sleep all night.
The last one was also fascinated with my long hair and would snuggle in it for long periods of time.
Heck, I’m balding and the kitten’ll get up on my shoulders and lick away. Maybe it’s the shampoo.
The kneading thing is new to me, as Bobby, the black and white, never does it and Amanda, the calico, does it very infrequently and only to laps. The kitten (we decided to call her Tasha, because why not?) is aggressive and constant about it.
She’s much cuter in the daytime then at night, that’s for sure.
Cats are weird. My 3 will chase one another from one end of the apartment to the other, all night long, sending books and knick knacks flying willy nilly whenever they get in their way. And Seamus has recently taken to licking the stucooed walls in the living room. Very strange.
Emily is 12 and still kneads and licks me every night. She also insists on curling up right under my chin, to the point where I often have to “persuade” her to slide down an inch or two so I don’t have a mouth full of cat hair all night. I’ve never had a cat that was such a kneader and licker before. She also adores the nail strengthener I put on, licks my fingertips till I wonder if she’s going to lick it all off.
There’s no explaining cats. That’s my only explanation.
Not yet, I’ll be setting up a vet appointment this week for a check-up and shots. She’s clearly domesticated, even litter-trained, so for all I know she may be fixed already.
I considered that she might have a family already, but without a collar there’s no easy way to tell (unless she’s chipped, which I guess the vet can verify). The neighbors are fairly sure she doesn’t have a home either, so until I see Lost Cat signs I’ll presume she got abandoned.
Heh, you are totally correct. I’m more of a dog person, and I’ve had dogs that seem to always want to sleep on my bed. With a dog you can always fling them off and they will eventually get the message, but cats seem to be immune to this kind of pressure. One of my fondest childhood memories is reading *The Lord of the Rings * in front of a roaring log fire, with Kim and Sheena (Alsatian + mutt) lying beside me in the warmth and the two cats competing to see who could get the most comfortable place on my back. Heh, again. Sob, too.
That was my same thought when I saw the picture. She is a very pretty kitty.
You could try buying one of those fuzzy pillows or a large stuffed animal. Some of my cats still knead and they can’t resist anything soft, squishy and fuzzy. I recently was going through some old crap from our move from a year and a half ago and came across a stuffed fuzzy flattened bunny. My cat Uno can not resist it and sleeps on it almost every night. She kneads herself to sleep on it.
You might be able to find one at a thrift store that is already broken in
My Feline Overlord, before he went into the Giant Catnip Field In the Sky (sob), had a penchant for kneading/nibbling on my arm. I would manage to dissuade him after a while, but otherwise it was somewhat disturbing because I was paranoid that he’d change his mind and bite down.
And when he’d visit my bedside at night, he preferred sleeping at the foot of the bed (because I tend to toss and turn in my sleep). Although if I had the blankets on and he happend to walk across my chest, he would always end up accidentally groping me because he didn’t feel safe about the unstable terrain beneath and start poking at my bosom.
My cats have developed a habit I can’t seem to break them of, which is every night when the lights go out and I crawl into bed they decide that now is the time to do their best impression of stampeding rhinos and run all around the entire apartment. They always wait until the lights are off and everything is quiet. I guess they need to feel that they are being as disturbing as possible.
