One of the joys of owning a pet cat is that they can be great cuddle partners. Many “lap cats” show their love by hopping onto their owners legs for a snuggle.
A nice as it would be to cuddle with our cats all day long, sometimes that’s just not possible—we’ve all got things to do that require our legs, and we need a little space from the cat.
But one couple had a very affectionate cat and they felt bad ignoring him while working—so they came up with a very unusual solution that, to their surprise, worked like a charm.
Rebecca May, from London, is the owner of a 10-year-old cat named Ziggy, who she rescued from a shelter three years ago.
She says the cat can be shy at first, but once she warms up to you, good luck getting away: this cat loves to cuddle on people.
“Her ears go flat and her eyes go black when she thinks you’re about to sit,” Rebecca told The Dodo. “It’s almost like your lap is a target and she is straight on there whether you’re ready or not.”
She says the cat always just wants “warmth and to feel protected,” something she can only get through human contact. But there are times Rebecca and her husband can’t provide that contact—specifically when they’re working from home and need to focus on their jobs.
So they came up with a hilarious and slightly bizarre solution: creating a fake pair of legs so the cat would always have a lap to sit on!
Rebecca’s husband stuffed some pants, and put a heating pad in them to simulate body warmth.
Strange as it seems, it actually worked: the Ziggy loved it, keeping the clingy cat happy and buying the couple some distraction-free work time (“at least three hours,” Rebecca said.)
“He thought that creating a decoy would be funny, but I don’t think he expected it to actually work,” Rebecca told The Dodo. “Ziggy loved it.”
She posted the photo to Reddit, and people loved the story—many people with their own affectionate kitties related to it and praised the couple’s clever solution.
Now that they know it works, the couple plans to utilize the decoy legs again—though maybe they won’t have them out when guests are over.
“I think the trousers a bit too scary to keep up all the time,” Rebecca told The Dodo. “But we’ll definitely put it back out when we have a busy day of calls!”
Every cat owner could use some personal space once in a while—we might need to find some old pants to make our own “decoy!”
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