Princess Milly

Once upon a time there was a very beautiful and dainty little princess who lived in a house with two slaves and her annoying big brother. One of her slaves was pretty rubbish but the other one Milly was training up very nicely indeed....

This is how I think Milly sees the world. She’s a spoilt princess of a cat -  the kind that dislikes children, leaps ten feet into the air if you come down the stairs too quickly, turns her nose up at her food and she won’t just sit on anyone’s lap! However like any princess worth her salt, she’s perfected the doe-eyed look that means you will forgive her anything.

When she and her brother Jason were tiny, they would both sit on my lap at once cuddled up together, usually following a serious bout of kitten wrestling. They continued to do this until they were almost full grown - but then something changed. Milly didn’t want to sit on my lap with her brother; their fighting had progressed to proper scrapping at this point with Milly fighting a losing battle on

Last time squeezing on together
 

account of her size disadvantage. But even after they had both calmed down, she wanted to curl up on her own by the radiator. She almost stopped going on my lap altogether and preferred to have her own space. For me one of the benefits of having cats is that they sleep on your lap from time to time. You may as well have a stuffed toy, if it is going to sleep on the other side of the room! So I decided to made it my mission to bring out the hidden lap cat in Milly.

I noticed that she tended to be more affectionate during the day, not much use when I’m at work, so at the weekends I would take time to make a fuss of her and make my lap available even when I really had better things to do!  I could be mid-cleaning when Milly sidled up and wanted a fuss. I would literally stop everything, sit down, make a fuss of her and encourage her onto my lap and sit there for half an hour. Now I realise this sounds like a terrible excuse to be lazy but in reality I would have preferred to carry on with my jobs and have her sit on me in the evening when it was time for me to relax. But Milly couldn’t be pinned down with schedules, so I worked at it - even risking being late on workdays so I could grab 10 minutes with her in the morning.

I didn't say stop rubbing my face!

Now, few cats can resist a good face scratching and I happen to be one of the best!  Gradually Milly grew to want to sit on my lap more and more. Now, when I come home from work, she will follow me around meowing at me. If I sit on the sofa, she’ll jump on my lap and jump straight off and stand meowing at the foot of the stairs. She doesn’t want to sit on my lap on the sofa, but if I go upstairs she’ll follow me eagerly and jump onto the bed excitedly, pacing around and around until I sit down. When I sit down with my feet up she’ll leap onto my lap in a frenzy of purring and head butting. She’ll nuzzle my belly while I scratch her face and her little claws will be going in and out, with cat happiness. Eventually she’ll curl up, tuck her head against my tummy and fall asleep.

She is my little lap cat but it always has to be on her terms. She rarely sits on my lap if I’m watching telly in the evening and she much prefers the bed to the sofa for some reason.

She often ignores my husband but she knows that I’m putty in her hands and rewards me with short bursts of her affection as any good mistress should.