Living their best pet life

Do You Have a Velcro Kitty?

If you do, what can you do about it?

“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”

― Ernest Hemingway

Cats grace our lives with their mysteries. Every cat is different, but some have similar traits. Many are supremely independent little creatures. Others, not so much.

Every Cat Is Different

Cats will hang out where you are or not. If your cat is where you are most of the time, you may have a Velcro cat.

“Introducing the Velcro cat! This is the type of cat that will give you LOTS of affection and attention. They broke the stereotypical cat personality of being aloof and indifferent. Velcro cats will follow you everywhere you go, — even to the bathroom.” — perfectpetzzz.com, What is a Velcro Cat and How to Handle It

Here are some Velcro cat behaviors from HillsPet.com:

· “Following you everywhere, including to the bathroom.

· Wanting to constantly be on you when you’re sitting or lying down.

· Meowing constantly to get your attention.

· Demanding affection when you’re trying to focus on something other than them.

· Refusing to eat when you’re not there.

· Acting shy and sticking close to you when visitors come over.

· Sulking or hiding when you’re getting ready to leave, or rubbing against your legs in an attempt to keep you there.

· Getting overly excited when you return home.

· Eliminating outside the litter box and other destructive behavior.”

hillspet.com, Managing Clingy Cats: Do I Have a Velcro Kitty?

If your cat exhibits these types of behaviors, you have a Velcro kitty (Vk).

Now, the question is, what kind of Vk do you have? There are two main types.

Loud and Proud

The first is a cat like my Big Boy. Big Boy was a smoke Persian I accidentally rescued when we dropped items off at the animal shelter.

After the cat relaxed in our home, he was an out loud and proud Velcro cat. He shamelessly followed me wherever I went for the rest of his life. If I made a lap, he was in it. When I went to bed, he was also in bed. He was my poo buddy for life, as he would sit and stare at me when I had to go.

Any other cat that attempted to sit in my lap found themselves sharing for a brief time as Big Boy insisted on getting in my lap and slowly but surely pushing the interloper out.

Anything distracting from the attention paid to that cat was fair game for his ire. Papers were laid on, I could not type on keyboards and he squeezed humans who moved close to me out of their spot.

Once, he ran up to a delivery man standing at the front door talking with me, smacked him with four pitty pats to his pants leg, and then ran away howling. Why? Because I got up to answer the door — pushing the cat off my lap. It pissed Big Boy off.

One of his favorite tricks was to charm whatever human was near me to pick him up. It would convey him straight across to my lap without requiring him to make a jump. My lap was his destination the entire time.

Stealth Velcro

The second type of Velcro cat never fully acknowledges they care about their person at all, but they do. The cat mysteriously appears wherever the person has moved to. You do not see the cat walk behind the person like Big Boy did me, but the cat is there.

These cats dislike the person to touch them unless they want to be touched. When they want attention, they seek it out. They do not sleep on their person but under the bed or at the bottom of the bed by their person’s feet.

This is a stealth Velcro cat. We sometimes refer to this type of cat as a ninja cat. They move through the shadows just out of their person’s peripheral vision. The cat is with you all the time but out of sight.

I had an older aunt who wouldn’t get out of bed because she was older and grumpy. We got her a 1-year-old cat. He was an outspoken Velcro cat. Within a month, the cat had her up and about making cat meals, playing with cat toys, and just doing stuff out of bed.

How To Tame A Velcro Kitty

The only time there is an issue with a clingy cat is when the human does not have the time or the inclination to be with the cat 24/7. If you don’t want a Vk cat, there are things you can do to help the cat become less needy.

The owner can establish boundaries between them and the cat. This can be as simple as not always giving in to whatever the cat wants.

The owner can schedule playtime with the cat to ensure it is not bored. This will get the cat and the owner some needed exercise.

The owner can consult with the vet to ensure the cat does not have an underlying problem causing it to behave clingy.

The owner can introduce another cat into the environment to give the clingy cat someone else to harass.

The final answer is the cat does not care about your feelings. If the cat is too much for you, you can adjust or re-home it to a place where it can get what it needs. Fortunately, cats cannot re-home people who are not meeting their expectations. Remember, cats are letting you live with them.

The cat will not change. Good luck.

Toni Crowe has been owned by multiple cats in her life, all of them clever creatures. Read humorous stories about her cats in her book, Hey Hue-Man Where Is Our Food. You will laugh out loud. Available on Amazon.

Enjoy more humorous writing from Toni Crowe. 100 Medium stories here.