On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 21:23:21 +1000, "Yowie"
yodeled:

Cats are curious creatures, in both senses of the word. For the 14 or so
years that I've known Shmoggleberry, he's had a phobia of bare skin against
his fur. Well, not a *phobia* because obviously he likes a good scritching,
and he has no problem with bare skin next to his fur if his fangs are being
hypodermically inserted at the same time. But he simply won't entertain the
thought of settling himself down for a good purr session when in contact
with even the merest hint of bare skin.

This of course makes summer highly amusing, particularly when Shmogg goes
through his "lap cat" phase. He'll saunter down from the back of the lounge,
give me the "present lap, mere human!" look, and climb upon my legs. He's
often kind enough to retract his claws too.

Now, in winter, I've often got a blanket over my legs, and even if I don't
I'm wearing long pants (I don't do skirts) so His Majesty has somewhere
suitably non-skinlike to settle. But in summer, I usually wear shorts.

Now Shmogg isn't entirely stupid, but his little kitty brain isn't wired
like a human's. In the same sort of cat logic that dictates that if the
weather is bad out the back door, one ought to try the front door, Shmogg
doesn't just abandon the thought of sitting on my lap because there's the
dreaded Bare Skin where a nice cosy cat napping place ought to be. No, that
would be human thinking. What he can feel is the fabric of my shorts. It may
not be covering the whole of my legs, but its there, and its on my lap.
Using his superior thought processes and amazing metamorphosing way, he
tries to shrink himself from over 6kg of oafish cat into a slither of his
former self - a sliver the right sort of shape and size to be able to sit on
the sliver of shorts fabric that is on my lap.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Stinky is just the same. He is a lap fungus three
seasons of the year, when my legs are covered.
He will *not* sit on my bare legs. I think he doesn't want to
slippy-slide off, and I suspect he is loath to stick his claws into my
bare skin. He scrunches up onto my shorts, too.



Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com