Before I adopted Olga, I lived with a friendly Siamese cat who rarely left my side. I quickly learned that Olga wasn’t a lap cat, and it took her a while to warm up to me. She used to greet me at the door when I came home from work, and she has always enjoyed playing with cheap toys, like paper balls, but she wasn’t fond of petting or any form of grooming.
She’s much friendlier and more vocal now, but it was a slow transition. For a few years, she slept in a chair in my bedroom before wandering over to the foot of the bed. When she was young, she was always friendly to visitors but wouldn’t let them pick her up; she preferred laying on their feet.
Olga’s Early Years
Although she was usually gentler to strangers, she wasn’t afraid to strike them if they petted her back or tried to rub her belly. Living with an aloof feline isn’t for everyone, but some prefer it. It requires less effort since you don’t have to give them as much attention.
It took me a long time to convince Olga that human contact was beneficial. Another owner may have decided to give up on her and allow her to hide under the bed for most of her life. I irritated her into liking me. She attacked me every time I picked her up, but when I started picking her up and carrying her into the kitchen for dinner, she learned to relax.
Nowadays, when I turn off my computer in the evening, she jumps in my lap and anxiously awaits her trip to the dinner bowl. Bribing her with food was an effective way to make her less resistant to being picked up, but I didn’t do anything to convince her to sleep in my lap. She doesn’t seek lap naps as often as my other cat and cannot tolerate human contact for long.
Lap Nap Anxiety
Olga rarely sleeps on anyone’s lap for more than ten minutes, and sometimes, when she wakes up, she looks confused and quickly runs away. I don’t know whether it’s because she’s embarrassed she was too friendly or concerned that her bonding time was interfering with her alone time.
She had a violent reaction once when she was a few years old. She fell asleep on my legs with her head and front paws hanging off the chair, and when she woke up, she nearly fell. Instead of sliding off, she hopped up and attacked my feet with her claws and fangs. She doesn’t assault me anymore, but she still has a terrified look on her face when she awakens in my lap.
Some independent felines may never learn to love interacting with humans, and it can take years for an aloof cat to transform into a lap cat. It requires patience and helps if you have a high threshold for pain. Olga spends a few hours meditating under the couch every day, but she spends most of the day beside her favorite, annoying human.
