[Rex_cat_lover]

Hello! I am new to the forum and new to cats. My wife and I just adopted Sasha from the local shelter two and a half weeks ago. She is supposedly 3... siamese/tortoise mix. She is very sweet and is doing well. She does not jump on the counters and furniture except the bed in her room. That is ok. She likes her scratching pad, scratching post, cat condo, etc. She sleeps most of the day (I work from home). She loves to play in the morning and late at night. She does not let me pet her for very long if at all most of the time. She does lay on my chest with her head facing me sometimes. Not very often though. She usually only sits with me in her room and that has only been a few times. She does not like to come out into the living room very much. We wish that she would socialize with us in the living room more and sit on our laps. Is there anything that you would suggest??? I want a lap cat! Maybe I am impatient. Here are two photos

 

[CyberPet]

If she has some siamese in her, she'll be a lap cat for sure. Siamese are suckers for love!

Just give her some time, she has a lot of new things to adjust to. Once she get to know you, she'll be sucking up to you big time, you won't be able to say no. Our kittens took a while too before they came to us for love, now we can't get rid of them if we wanted to. They just walked into our hearts with those furry paws and is there to stay.

You have a gorgeous cat and a warm welcome to you and Sasha!

 

[jonsgirl]

I agree, give her a little time. You will start to see her develop her own little personality and hopefully she will be more loving. She looks like a very sweet girl.

Some cats never become lap cats because it's just not in their nature....my Stix doesnt like petting and all that "mushy stuff", he will only let me pet him for a while, when he WANTS to be petted. And Ive had him for almost 2 years now!

Kota, my little siamese, is a love bunny though. She purrs for no reason and doesnt even mind little kids grabbing on her.

 

[queen of the nile]

In addition to needing time to adjust, many young cats don't become lap cats until they're older. My cat Cleo hated sitting in my lap until she turned 3 years old, and now she loves her snuggles.

 

[OsnobunnieO]

She's very pretty LOVE the name (my dog is named Sasha).

My cat, when I first got him, was really shy but he absolutely loved attention. He used to lay on my chest and get as close to me as he could while I just pet away. Now, he won't stay on me at all but he'll lay next to me. I think he was just really deprived of attention and now he's used to it and doesn't want it as much. I miss my cuddly kitty

I'm sure once she gets adjusted she'll be much more loving and social.

 

[brite]

Sasha kinda looks like my little girl, Tyra!

And yes, she's the active one who wasn't much of a lap cat at first -- she had too much fun playing. After a while she came around and loves snuggling with us... so I'm sure Sasha will come around too! We're still working on Tyson being a lap cat, but he's getting heavier so I don't know if we'd want him in our laps too much anyway :lol:

 

[Gudewife]

What a pretty girl!

Assumpta came to us at about age 2, and was instant lap-kitty with me, though she took longer to warm up to my husband (which is a little odd, as she MUCH prefers men to women overall, and for some reason, she hated everyone in sight, but zeroed in on me as "her" person). Five years later, HE is the prefered lap provider (he has longer legs, so he puts his feet up on the coffee table and Assumpta dangles her legs like she's lying on a branch). But when Assumpta's sick or upset, she curls up around my neck with her nose planted squarely in the base of my throat for hours at a time.

We also work at home, and so were pretty flexible in the amount of time we could spend with her. The first couple of times Assumpta explored my husband's lap, I made him stay still until *she* decided it was time to get down. I had a friend in college who constantly complained that her cat "didn't do" laps, but every time I was there, the cat tried to get up in her lap and only got to stay there a few minutes because my friend was a perpetual motion machine and couldn't stop moving. :? To this day, I credit the cat with teaching my husband to sit and stay. :lol:

I have one friend (a total cat magnet) who took in a stray (he has four, all former strays that just showed up on his farm) that didn't know *how* to get up on a lap. He'd put his front paws on your thighs, dig his claws in, and pull himself up via brute force. He's since learned that he can jump up just as easily, but we all had claw marks in our legs for a while. :roll:

All you can really do is wait patiently for the cat to completely take over your home... With Assumpta, it helped to let HER decide the lap terms; if she jumped up in my husband's lap and he patted her, she'd immediately hop back off, whereas if he waited for her to jump up and take her time exploring, she'd eventually decide that she wanted a pat and come to him. She's just one of those cats that *hates* it when people come to her, she'd much rather decide the terms herself. The most important thing with Assumpta was making an atmosphere conducive to laps (quiet TV, no loud voices or music) and letting her take the lead.

 

[Rex_cat_lover]

Thanks for the replies

Thank you all for the replies. Sasha explored the living room a little more yesterday. I hope that she does come around to sitting on my lap. I really like this cat forum. Thanks again.