The much beloved kitty has thrown me over for a towel

[Bossy Monkey]

The small auxiliary cat, who never let me alone for months on end, has now glommed onto a towel Alice inadvertently left on the coffee table the other day. I'm bereft. BEREFT I tell you! (Mostly kidding, but I am a little bit.) So if you have a cat who seems to be overly clingy or needy, before you resort to kitty Paxil, try laying something insulating like a towel around on the colder surfaces of the house. (Of course, she could have just reverted to lying on the carpet; why she doesn't is somewhat beyond me.) They may just be trying to suck out your body heat!

[Bossy Monkey]

1. Update (on the extremely remote chance that anybody's interested)

I bought 4 more towels and distributed them to the cats' favorite sitting places. Them are suddenly the happiest two cats you ever saw (or anyway, pretty obviously more comfortable). And the small auxiliary kitty has still come to sit on my lap a couple of times, so I'm only partially bereft. Yaaaaaaaaay!

[uppityperson]

5. that's a good idea. Getting cold here, will spread out old towels.

[KT2000]

2. Interesting,...........

my cat was a stray and I am still trying to get her to be a little more friendly. Shee seems to be on guard all the time.
I put a towel over her one night and petted her through the towel. She loved it. She purred like I had never heard before and she even drooled! She totally relaxed.
Taking the towel off brings her back to her guarded self.

Who knew towels could be so therapeutic for our kitties?!?!?

[NMMNG]

3. Towels are softer than carpet

They also tend to smell nicer as they don't have dirty feet walking all over them.

My roomie's cat is partial to the blanket that's in my old laundry basket (now his bed) and, during the winter, my down filled coat. The moment I bring that coat out and lay it down anywhere he'll curl up in it and it breaks my heart to take him off of it so I can leave.

[Bossy Monkey]

4. I guess we should have figured it out since the large main cat

was always getting into laundry baskets and bureau drawers. But the small auxiliary cat isn't that aggressive. When she first arrived, her go-to place was lying on the carpet under an end table with her chin resting on the woodwork. (Awwwww!)

[hedgehog]

6. I love the term, small auxiliary cat!

We have Sapa, Frodo and the little bite-y cat, Mary Jane. Mary Jane has evolved into a mighty hunter and leaves a mouse or a bird (Oh no!) around just about every day. Apparently she hasn't figured out that those small furry things are crunchy. All three cats will squeeze themselves into anything resembling a box. They all prefer the shallow basket on the dining room table. Yesterday I saw Mary Jane trying out the styrofoam packing from the new printer.

[Bossy Monkey]

7. Stole it from Dave Barry

who, during his first marriage, wrote a lot more about family life and always referred to their large main dog Earnest and their small auxiliary dog Zippy. I figured that since he wasn't using the phrase anymore...

[Lars39]

8. You are the victim of planned obsolescence.

Once they figure out the can opener you're just a vague memory.

[Bossy Monkey]

10. We're more worried about them figuring out the cordless phone;

we're convinced that big kitty Madeline's only ambition is to get Boar's Head to deliver a truckload of cajun turkey.

[begin_within]

9. Cats are historically cave dwellers for shelter, so they like dark, warm

places, like under the blankets with you on a cold night. In the wild, they seek out caves or openings in rocks because they feel safer there. Who doesn't like a blanket on a cold day? My cat loves it when I put a towel on the table - he immediately jumps right on it. It's a lot warmer for him than the bare table. Of course his favorite table is my chest or stomach, but that's not always possible.

[Thegonagle]

12. Cats also prefer to rest somewhere that they can see

and hear what's going on around them. That helps explain why they prefer higher places to lower places, and would rather sleep on top of your dresser or end table, rather than on the floor. They also despise cold or drafty areas. The smelly-feet-on-the-carpet theory is interesting, but I believe they don't prefer the carpet simply because it's too low to see well, so they don't feel safe, and it can be cold and/or drafty on the floor.

[kedrys]

11. We have little kitty beds

It's some kind of synthetic wool, but it apparently works just like the real thing - the kitties love it, especially my oldest, who at 15 doesn't have a lot of padding left.

Washable too!

[Dangerously Amused]

13. Old wool sweaters. Greatest Kitty beds EVAR!

Even - or, especially - the ones you accidentially shrunk in the wash:


Tuck sleeves inside. Fold to fit a cardboard box or wooden crate. Kitty heaven!

[Bossy Monkey]

14. Too rainy here for me to wear wool sweaters-- but I know where all the thrift stores are

Thanks; good suggestion!

[Jamastiene]

15. What do you mean by auxiliary?

She sounds like a lovable little kitty.

[Bossy Monkey]

16. She's the best kitty in the whole wide world. See #7 for source of

auxiliary reference (you know, one of those joke things); see my DU Journal for pictures.