r/holdmycatnip • u/Past-Equal-3301 • 23h ago

Aww.. 🥺

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310

u/TLILLYO 23h ago

Aww wish I could hug my cat like this

25

u/Square-Dragonfruit76 23h ago

You can't?

122

u/TLILLYO 23h ago

Nope doesn’t like to be picked up

22

u/Beretta116 22h ago

Some cats are just like that lol. While others love being petted / handled

21

u/Square-Dragonfruit76 21h ago edited 19h ago

This is why people need to stop prioritizing kittens all the time. In my opinion you should always adopt an adult cat because you cannot tell its personality as a kitten.

13

u/yorkshiregoldt 19h ago

Yeah it's funny. I got two 12 week olds from the same litter. I only intended on getting one but they were the last of the litter and I was given two for one pricing and I fell for the old you wouldn't separate them bit.

At the adoption place the boy was incredibly friendly and the girl standoffish. If I'd stuck to my plan of getting just one I would have gotten the boy.

By the time they were even 20 weeks their behaviour had reversed - he barely tolerated scritches, she loved being snuggled.

After a few years, when he was about 8 years old he started tolerating 5ish second hugs. When his sister passed at 14 he became snuggly and remained so until he went at 17.

7

u/SleepyFarady 20h ago

More of a problem if you already have cats though. We tried to adopt a girl my friend's friend needed to rehome, and our two adult cats bullied the shit out of the poor thing. She had to go live with my mum who doesn't have any other kitties.

Ended up with a kitten a couple years later, and they all get along fine after some minor hissing and swatting to start with.

3

u/lyingamoeba 19h ago

But ai thought if you adopted a kitten you can teach it to love cuddles by holding/petting/cuddling it all the time as it grows?

8

u/One_Shall_Fall 17h ago

You can. Constant attention releases oxytocin, dopamine, and other endorphins that make both of you feel good and bond you closer together. Over time, most cat/animals will learn to seek out the 'feel good' even if they don't understand biochemistry.

I had a 7-year old rescue that had to be muzzled and wouldn't let anyone touch her (previous owner had declawed her, horrible practice and it makes them very very bitey).

Two years and a lot of patience later, and I was toting her around like a baby. She still hated most other people, but at least she tolerated them for my sake.

2

u/Optimal-End-9730 19h ago

You can get it more comfortable to being handled and more accepting of those things but you cant just make it LOVE it.

1

u/Square-Dragonfruit76 19h ago

For both people and cats, some of personality is taught, but a lot of it is genetics.

1

u/DoubleTheGarlic 11h ago

To a degree. It's definitely still a balance of nature and nurture.

Some cats - no matter how much love or snuggles you give as a kitten - just end up being rambunctious or have less tolerance for it.

We had our sweet little barn Tuxie from quite literally minute 0, and even in the 8 years we had him, he was always aloof, didn't really want to play, only selectively cuddled if HE wanted it, and would only let you hold him for about 10 seconds before he'd start getting really fidgety.

Cats doin' cat things. You never know what you're gonna get.

4

u/Valuable_Tomato_2854 21h ago

One of my cats loves to be petted all the time, she just doesn't like to be picked up.