So let me tell you about this cat.
Anyone who knows me personally knows that in February of this year I was kicked out by my parents. This extremely nice family (the parents of an ex I dated almost 8 years ago who I’m still friends with. Go figure!) Took me in and I’ve been living with them ever since.
They have three dogs, which I’ve known for years. I only learned that they had a cat when I came to live with them.
“When did you get a cat?” I asked them.
“Oh, we’ve always had her. She’s just not very social.”
This is Snuggles (ironically named bc she was assumed to be the most un-snuggly cat).
I’ve never owned a cat. My mother was allergic so we always had dogs in the house. So, having a cat in the house was foreign and exciting for me. Whenever I would see her, I would try so very hard to interact with her. For the first few months I lived here, she avoided me.
The vacant bedroom that soon became mine used to be a storage room where she would prowl and sleep. So when I started to inhabit her space, she was kinda pissed. She would enter the room and find a place to chill, and just stare at me with these ‘this bitch’ eyes.
The family said she was just like that, so I tried not to let it get to me. The dogs liked me just fine.
Things slowly started to change. I first noticed it when I would come home from work, usually around 11 or 12 at night (I worked night shift at a fast food joint). Snuggles is an indoor/outdoor cat because she doesn’t like litter boxes and she knows how to use the dog door. She spends the day outside and comes in at night.
She began greeting me at my car when I would come home from work. She would come outside and sit halfway between the front door and the mailbox, and meow at me until I greeted her back. She wouldn’t let me pet her, but she would go inside the house with me.
Then, I would be cooking in the kitchen, and she would hop up on the counter and watch me. This is when she finally started to let me pet her. She has a jar of cat treats so I started to give her treats. She would meow and meow until I gave her treats.
After this, when she would greet me at my car, she would flop onto the cement and let me pet her outside. Only a little, though, because then she’d use her claws or nip at me.
Then, she began investigating me in my room.
She would hop up on the bed and wander around, smell my things, stick her head in my drinking glasses on the bedside table. I would come home from work and find her curled up in my blankets on my bed if I left my door even slightly open.
When I would close my door, she would meow or push herself against the door until I let her in. Then she’d jump up on my bed and make herself comfortable at the foot of my bed.
She didn’t start to actually snuggle with me until a month ago when I lost my job and my depression got really bad.
Every night she comes to my room and demands entrance so she can sleep with me. During the day or night she wants to be cuddled up with me in my room. She makes herself comfortable in my lap while I use my laptop or play with my 3DS. She’ll curl up behind my knees if she can’t get in my lap.
But just last week, she started doing something new.
When I sleep, I sleep on my side. I tuck a thin pillow between my legs for hip support, and I have a large, squishy, fluffy pillow I hug to my chest. I cannot sleep if I don’t have both of these things.
I was sound asleep one night, Snuggles curled up behind my knees, when I felt her climb up on top of me. She moved to the side of my belly, where it met my hugging-pillow, and she kneaded my side until she was content, and she curled up on top of me like I was a large cushion to sleep on.
Now, every night, she sleeps on top of me like so.
I’ve never owned a cat. I’m awkward with cats. This cat was previously unfriendly and aloof, but she knew that I needed her companionship. Knew that I needed a friend and love that I wasn’t getting elsewhere. This cat adopted me. This cat loves me. You can’t convince me otherwise.
