On Kittens and True Love

On Kittens and True Love

Today, we have another pet post (she’s the last quarantine animal we’ve gotten, don’t worry!), and this time it is about our little cat, Yahtzee. 

For a family of avid travelers, it came as a surprise when, a few months into quarantine, our parents called us down to the couch to show us prospective kittens to adopt. We had always discussed getting a pet, but we never did because that would mean we couldn’t take long trips without taking the pet or putting it in a petcare center. 

When we heard we might be getting a cat, we were so excited! I remember asking for a cat the previous Hannukah and being handed a sweater with a black cat on it, so this was a dream come true for me. I could imagine waking up to her at my feet, her cuddling with me on the couch or on my lap. I couldn’t wait!

In the end, after much debate, we picked Yahtzee, a tiny thing with tabby markings all over her grey and black fur. Within a few weeks, we went to the ASPCA all masked up, grabbed her, put her in her carrying case, and then brought her home.

At first, she adjusted quite well. We were afraid to touch her because we didn’t want to invade, but after a few weeks, we were carrying her around. She was like a little princess. We pampered her with toys, scratching posts, treats, and all the attention she could ever want. We all loved her, but there was one catch. She didn’t quite love us back. 

Well, I guess she loved us in her own kitten way, but if we tried to put her on our lap? That was a no-go. She liked to slink away when we walked by, not staying around for even a pat on the head. That hurt. What had happened to the good-natured, loving cat of my dreams?

She tolerated us, I guess, but there were never any signs that she actually wanted to be with us. She was probably only sticking around for the food.

After further research, we concluded that she would need to grow out of her kittenhood before becoming lethargic enough to actually become a “lap cat” (a term for a cat who will rest on your lap, but in our family, it pretty much evolved to mean a cat who loves you).

This would be fine, I could just wait it out. But as the weeks wore on, I realized that I didn’t want a cat who would just snuggle with me because they were too tired to do anything else. I wanted a cat who actually loved me. 

So I (really my mother, but I’m just gonna go ahead and take the credit here) researched lap training a little bit. The idea was that you fed the kitten some kibble on your lap and then they got used to it. 

So we tried it on Yahtzee. She ran away before we could even get the kibble near her. We kept on trying, though, and after a few days, we made some progress. She stayed on our laps just long enough for us to feed her. The rest is history… just kidding. The training seemed to be working, but only when we’d whip out her treats or kibble.

So we tried many, many, many more things. We started obsessively blinking at her so that she didn’t feel threatened by our staring. We even tried to make trails of kibble to our lap. But nothing seemed to work. This isn’t like Milo’s story. There wasn’t a magical strategy we could stumble on, and though our patience helped us not to get frustrated, it never helped us make progress. 

Yes, it was frustrating, but as we were trying our many ideas, Yahtzee started to inch closer to us. It was barely perceptible at first, but she started to sit near us when we watched TV, or even stay on my lap for a second more when we were training her. I suppose you could say it was because she was getting older, but I think (being a skilled communicator in meowish) she just needed some time to adjust.

After waiting a few more months, just before we got Milo, I would say, Yahtzee seemed to have evolved into the perfect cat. The day that I really saw her true temperament was December 19th, 2020. Yes, I remember the date. I was playing Minecraft… or was it Among Us? Anyway, I was playing some video game with my brother and my cousins (via the phone). Yahtzee was walking around us, rubbing her head on our feet and then jumping up on the desk to rub up on our hands. That was when she reached out her paw. Not to scratch me, but instead to search for a spot on my lap. She pulled back, I think scared to go on my lap because she wasn’t sure it was stable. She kept on doing this for the next 10 minutes, and each time, she would let more and more of her paw touch my legs, until finally… she hopped on. I didn’t have any treats in my pockets, and she just hopped onto my lap. I was elated! How is this the same cat that we adopted so many months ago? I remember thinking. Yahtzee fell asleep in my lap, and we stayed that way for three hours. Believe me, by the end of her nap, I could feel the burn in my thighs, but I couldn’t care less. 

So, I guess you could ask what I learned from this whole ordeal. I feel like, at least with Milo’s post, I had a concrete lesson. “Don’t give up.” But for Yahtzee, I didn’t really learn something that could help you train your cat, or any pet for that matter. The only thing I would say that I realized is that there’s no magic potion to make pets feel more comfortable, especially because they don’t understand a lot of human behaviors. For example, while I might think petting Yahtzee is loving, she would probably think it would be more loving if I groomed her (Yes, with my mouth. She definitely would rather that than the plastic brush we use.). Even though I wish Yahtzee could have been loving from the start, it made me really appreciate our bond. I know that Yahtzee took her time, but that’s ok with me. If she loved everyone, then what we have (sorry I’m making this sound like a cheesy romance) wouldn’t be as special. 

All in all, my advice is that even when you are feeling discouraged, like your pet will never love you, don’t despair, if you wait long enough, they may just end up sleeping on your bed all day while you do online school.

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Dora