My Friend's cat honoured me...

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I wennt up to Norwich recently to see a friend, and she has a beautiful black-and-white cat called Rassilon. At several points, I was able to put the cat on my lap and he stood there, purring, and my friend said "You're very honoured, usually he just jumps off straight away." Once I'd eaten, the cat came over, jumped on my lap, and settled there quite happily purring away, much to my friend's amused disgust. "He's not a lap cat and doesn't even sit on MY lap." she observed.

This has also happened at home, with Dara, my parent's cat who has a preference for males. In the absence of my brother, Dara has sometimes jumped up and settled on me even in preference to my Dad! Mum is totally annoyed because I'm only at their home rarely and Dara has NEVEr sat on her lap.

Has anyone else here had this?

JulieArticuno

We have two cats at home. The boy is friendly with anyone, but the girl is very shy and timid. We've had her for six years, and she still runs away from my father. I'm the only one she'll actually choose to approach, to the extent of coming out from under a chair where she's been sleeping to see me as soon as she even hears my voice in the room.

It does make me wonder if animals can somehow sense our different patterns of thought and are attracted to humans who they feel are... more like them, in a way.

This has happened with me as well. We have two cats on one of them doesn’t like anyone to pick her up except me. She’ll let my wife pet her, but that’s it. She is a tortoise short haired and doesn’t let anyone touch her hardly. The funny thing is she let my brother and father touch her, but that’s it. My brother is most likely Aspie and is getting tested like himself, and I'm pretty sure my father is as well.

I was visiting my cousin and she has a cat that hates males but he comes to me and sits on my lap. This cat doesn’t like her husband or my wife, but comes to me every time I visit. My cousin says the she has never seen him do that to anyone. I do think cats can detect something different about us.

The same goes for dogs, my uncle had a German Shepard that didn’t like males (except for my Uncle), but loved me. This really puzzled my uncle since I’m twice the size of my cousin (his son) and the dog would always come to me.

That's a nice story...in my experience cats like quiet people, people who are quiet around them anyway, who don't talk too loud or do a lot of sudden movements. Yes, I think they can sense if you are 'on their wavelength'. Yep, sounds like a real honour to me

My mom's cat will sit with anyone who will pet her as long as you are sitting in one of the two reclining chairs in the living room.

Very cool feeling.

A similar thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago. My 'only' remaining friend had his daughter in town for a visit and she has a "toy Doberman pinscher". This poor little dog is 9 pounds of shiverring neurosis, the result of serious in-breeding, and will not even look at other people. He had been hiding under the coffee table for two days.

I had never seen a tiny Dobie before, and showed some interest and he came out and right up to me. No one could believe it. In a few minutes he wanted in my lap and I helped him up, another first. I can't explain it. I love animals, especially the "underdog" types and some of them recognize this.

Maybe we are 'Whisperers' for the down trodden.

I once managed to save a beautiful Irish spaniel from being shot. He was a trainee for a gun club and not all dogs can be gun dogs, even within a gun breed. He had been beaten and was terrified of gunfire. They had castrated him with a pocket knife, no medication, except salt, and he was still bleeding when I took him.

Gaining his confidence was a challenge, even for me, at first. He lived a long life as a delightful pet after his rough and cruel start to life.

Cats, actually... All animals like me for some reason. They are never afraid to hide from me. I guess I am Dr. Dolittle or someone else!

Cats... Yes, same here.

The difference between me and NTs isn't so much that cats "like" me, but that NTs don't get the signals that cats send out--the "back off" signal when you've been petting them too much; the slight stiffening that says they don't want to be picked up; the slightly opened mouth and whiskers bushed that say they're curious... it's the tail and whisker and ear language that cats speak. Ferals are pretty fascinating too--though you have to watch from a ways away, because they haven't learned to trust humans, no matter how well said human understands what they're saying.

I wonder why I understand cat body language, and am clueless on NT body language? It's pretty weird--because you'd think that if I were bad at body language, I'd be equally bad at a cat's.

The only difference that I can think of is that body language is a cat's primary communication, and an NT's secondary communication. That, and the body types, of course.

Cats honour me, everywhere that I go. No matter who's house I'm, their cat jumps into my lap and cuddles.

Yes.

Ive had countless experiences like that where bad tempered animals would be calm and friendly in my presence and such.

Animals and children just seem to like me.

Perhaps because we let them be what they are without trying to change them and give them respect rather than viewing them as an object kept around solely for our own benefit?

Or maybe its just they can tell I dont think of myself as superior to them in any way only different?

Children and cats just naturally are drawn to Aspies. H.P. Lovecraft loved cats, and once while visiting a friend, the friend's kitten fell asleep in his lap. HPL refused to allow his friend to wake up the kitty, and he there chatting until the kitten woke up.

(He may have written some very strange fiction, but he had a good heart.)

Same thing happened to me. Back when I was fifteen and I was moving about a month from then, I was hanging out with a girl, named Stephanie, whom I rarely talked to since we were basically complete opposites. (I was hanging out with her that day for the first time in two years.) Anyway, she had a large Pomeranian (about ten pounds) and his name was Winston. I was still a bit scared of dogs at that time, but I accepted Winston. When Winston was sitting on my lap, Stephanie's dad came into the room and looked completely shocked. He said Winston never likes anyone and usually bites them. But there he was, just sitting there on my lap and licking my hand. I am now completely over my fear of dogs and I actually now have three Pomeranians, one of which is named Winston.

I think this might be a partial solution to the "why animals like Aspies" question:

When you interact with cats, a direct stare is aggressive. If one cat accidentally stares at another, then once it notices it it'll blink to break the eye contact.

And Aspies are famous for not making eye contact--something that is polite to NTs, but very rude to animals, at least cats (and I think dogs, too).

So perhaps we present a non-threatening, "polite" interaction to the animal, fostering better relationships.