Cat Affection Move: Petting in Place

Thanks for stopping by! Get The Way of Cats, delivered, by asking for my RSS feed. Get my free cat advice newsletter by signing up here and get the FREE eBook, Ten Cat Tricks (Every Human Should Know.)

How can we show a cat our affection when one of us is busy? We can use Petting in Place.

This is a wonderful Mutual Regard move that doesn’t have to be very long or very involved. In fact, that’s the beauty of this move.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

As difficult as it is telling cats we are busy when all we are doing is staring at a screen or printed page, it’s just as difficult for cats to convey to us that they are also busy, when it seems like they are doing nothing.

What looks like nothing might be their pausing in the hallway while their ears are scoping out some stray sound. Or they are trying to locate that one hair that is out of place, so they can groom it back in. Or they might look like they are sleeping, but what they are really doing is finally getting every part of their flexible body arranged for maximum comfort.

This is a bad time for some clueless human to swoop in, rearrange everything for the human’s ease of petting, and then dump them back down.

It’s like having someone insist that we get out of bed “just” to take the garbage out. Sure, we can go back to bed right after. But we know there’s no point; it has already been ruined.

It’s especially annoying to the cat when this petting session is a drive-by. If we are going to commit to something serious, like making our lap available during The Godfather marathon, that’s one thing. But to upend whatever they are doing just for a few rubs on the head or hearing “you are such a nice kitty”?

That is literally high-handed, and somewhat annoying.

So show some respect. Leave the cat where they are, and pet what’s handy. That’s the spirit of Petting in Place.

If they are standing up, run our hands along their sides. (Who knows, we might settle that stray hair.) If they are doing something, comment on it ourselves; peer out the window while we bestow an ear rub. If they are somewhat napping, pet their favorite places without rearrangement.

We can pet the cat whenever we want. It’s nice to pet the cat when we are going out the door. It’s sweet when we take a moment from our hot project to remember our buddy. It shows we care when we realize we haven’t touched base lately.

Often, the cat knows we are busy, and are busy themselves. So let’s not yank them out of their own projects and insist they make time for us, when all we want is a moment.

If we respect their busyness, we’ve laid the groundwork for teaching the cat to respect our busyness. If we miss each other, we’ll take the time.

If we don’t have the time, let’s not promise more than we can give.

Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more ways to get our cat to be affectionate in The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my CAT AFFECTION posts.