Although cats are known for being aloof and independent, they are affectionate and cuddly. Some cats need cuddles like they need air, so if they want a cuddle, they will hunt you down and snuggle up to you. However, these clingy cats sometimes can cause inconvenience to their owners because they always look for available laps.
Rebecca May and her husband also own a “super clingy” cat named Ziggy. The couple adopted Ziggy and her sister, Harley, from a London shelter three years ago. At first, Ziggy can be shy, but once she gets comfortable she doesn’t hesitate to show how she feels.
“When she bonds with someone it’s just really intense,” May told The Dodo. “She absolutely has to be sat on you.” Even before her parents sit down, she’s already planning her cuddle attack.
Recently, the couple started working from home more, but they couldn’t work because Ziggy loved climbing all over their desks and keyboards. For this reason, they needed to find a way to keep her occupied so they could get some work done.
After trying everything to calm and satisfy Ziggy, they finally came up with a great solution – a fake lap. “She needs warmth and to feel protected, we think,” May said.
May’s husband made a decoy human from a pair of lounge pants. The pants were stuffed with a duvet cover to resemble legs and had a heated mat inside of it. After adding tennis shoe feet and a pillow stomach, Ziggy quickly found her way onto the fake lap and lay there peacefully for four hours.
“He thought that creating a decoy would be funny, but I don’t think he expected it to actually work,” May said. “Harley was totally uninterested, but Ziggy loved it.”
Though the fake lap has worked effectively to comfort Ziggy, the family knows it’s no replacement for the real thing. “I think the trousers are a bit too scary to keep up all the time,” Becky said, “but we’ll definitely put it back out when we have a busy day of calls!”
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