Couple Comforts Their Super Clingy Cat With A Fake "Lap"
"I don't think he expected it to actually work."
Meet Ziggy — a 10-year-old cat with no respect for personal space.
Three years ago, Rebecca May and her husband adopted Ziggy and her sister, Harley, from a London shelter. And while Ziggy can be shy at first, once she gets comfortable she's not afraid to show how she feels. “When she bonds with someone it's just really intense,” May told The Dodo. “She absolutely has to be sat on you.”
Ziggy is always on the lookout for an available lap. Even before her parents sit down, she’s already planning her cuddle attack. “Her ears go flat and her eyes go black when she thinks you're about to sit,” May said. “It's almost like your lap is a target and she is straight on there whether you're ready or not.”
If there is no lap available for Ziggy, she always finds a way to get closer to her favorite people. “She will sit squarely on your back or balance precariously on your arm or shoulder,” May added. “She just has to be on you.”
Recently, Ziggy’s parents started working from home more. This seemed like good news to Ziggy — who immediately started climbing all over her mom’s desk and computer keyboard. But it posed a problem for May, who needs to be able to use the computer and take calls in peace.
May placed a cat bed on her desk so Ziggy could stay close, but it still wasn’t enough. “She needs warmth and to feel protected, we think,” May said.
The couple tried everything to calm Ziggy, but nothing seemed to satisfy her.
Finally, May’s husband came up with an idea: If Ziggy is only happy when seated on a lap, why not create a fake one?
He took a pair of lounge pants, stuffed them to resemble legs and hid a heating pad in the lap of the pants. For good measure, he added tennis shoe feet and a pillow stomach.
Ziggy quickly found her way onto the decoy lap and lay there peacefully for four hours.
“He thought that creating a decoy would be funny, but I don't think he expected it to actually work,” May said. “Harley was totally uninterested, but Ziggy loved it.”
May posted a photo of the decoy on Reddit with the caption, “Our cat has become SUPER clingy now that we both work from home. We had to improvise.” Cat owners applauded their creative problem-solving, and couldn't wait to try it out themselves.
While the fake lap has worked like a charm, the May family knows it's no replacement for the real thing.
“I think the trousers a bit too scary to keep up all the time," May said, "but we'll definitely put it back out when we have a busy day of calls!”