My cat LOATHES being picked up. It may just be because of her age or the fact that I may pick her up "wrong", but whenever you pick her up she lets out a meow of protest and struggles to break free. Not a hard, "LET ME GO" sort of struggle, mind you, but a little, subtle struggle. A shudder here, a little loosening of the leg there. And then when her upper body is free she leans over your arms, letting her weight pull you out. It's quite funny, actually.
I was wondering if this was a universal thing, or if it was just my cat's really, really weird. So how does your cat react to being picked up? Do they not mind? Do they hate it? Do they actively beg for you to pick them up, carry them everywhere, and never let them go? I'd love to hear your responses and stories!
I have one of each. Our older cat does NOT like to be handled. She gets her affection when SHE'S ready...and comes to you and you can reach down and touch her. She's 15 and has almost always been like this! If we pick her up she struggles to get away....with some degree of force, even. So, I just decided to love her as she is. I'd ask the same consideration of how I like attention. So that girl gets what she asks for and we simply don't pick her up.
Our other girl LOVES attention, even to be "man handled". She'll be on your lap in a heart beat, loves being picked up and cuddled, wraps herself around my head in bed at night, etc. My sons think she's a hoot, after having grown up with the other cat....they can do all sorts of silly things with her and she seems to LOVE it. She'll even "squawk" at them when they come through the door so she can get some attention from them.
So...mine seem to be polar opposites. In answer to your query.....I think it depends on the individual cat.
I have very similar experiences. My older cat Hates being picked up. Sometimes she will stay calm when I carry her, even when it's clear she's not enjoying it, and other times she struggles and meows for me to put her down. It depends on her mood, what she's doing when I want to pick her up and where I want to carry her.
My younger cat doesn't like being transported around, but he likes when I pick him up for petting. Sometimes he gets a little bitey when I try to pick him up, but as soon as he realizes that it might be petting time, he practically starts climbing on me. For some reason he likes to put his paws over my shoulder, and just cling to me.
I have had both of them since they were kittens, and they were acting like this when I brought them in.
Your younger one sounds adorable. How old is your older one? I ask because mine is about 12-13 years old. I originally thought it was an older cat thing, but from what you and the other guy(girl? Sorry Babble, don't know your gender), it's becoming quite clear that it's more of a personality or preference rather than an age thing. Maybe age does have some factor, my cat used to let my mom pick her up but now doesn't like it much any more.
My cat's so spoiled that he loves any interaction with me and if I'm standing up, he will then come over to me, list his paws on my leg and meow at me. I've had plenty of cats that really hated it though, it guess it's just another one of those personality differences in animals. I had one cat that you had to be careful because he would actually scratch and bite when you picked him up for anything and in any way, but he was quite a feral cat and he only liked me. We found him as a stray kitten and he ended up always looking like a wild cat. He had some huge paws too.. them claws were deadly.
maelstrom, my older cat is just over 2 years old. I think that it's just a personality thing. I'm going a bit off topic here, but I'm considering that they both had rough lives before I took them in (even though they were just small kittens then), and just have different ways of dealing with it. Nell being a bit cold and wary of humans, and Heathcliff being very clingy to the human that was nice to him. He's a very silent cat, unlike her he never meows when he's hungry or thirsty. The only times he starts meowing is when he's left alone (when I take Nell to the vet, when I'm taking him to the vet and he can't see me through the carrier, when he's left alone in the hallway even though we're not separated by any doors...). He is a very adorable and loving cat.
(06-05-2013, 05:51 AM)maelstrom Wrote: Your younger one sounds adorable. How old is your older one? I ask because mine is about 12-13 years old. I originally thought it was an older cat thing, but from what you and the other guy(girl? Sorry Babble, don't know your gender), it's becoming quite clear that it's more of a personality or preference rather than an age thing. Maybe age does have some factor, my cat used to let my mom pick her up but now doesn't like it much any more.
I would be a female. Never even thought about the fact that my name here doesn't make that obvious! LOL
(06-05-2013, 11:53 PM)Babble64 Wrote: I would be a female. Never even thought about the fact that my name here doesn't make that obvious! LOL
I somehow figured you would be female, I think it has something to do with how energetic you seemed and the way you wrote. Also, the amount of emoticons you use (not saying that's a bad thing, just an obvservation). In fact, I originally wrote that you were a female. However, I try not to generalize people, especially on forums such as these were the supposed "Everyone on the internet is a guy" doesn't apply considering that the visitors of said forums were probably evenly split between the genders.
One of my cats loves being picked up, although she is a nervous type and doesn't stick around if we don't put her down in just the right place. The other cat is completely moody. Sometimes she loves it, and will jump in the bed with us at night, but I'd say around 50% of the time she wants nothing to do with it. She won't fight it if we pick her up, but as soon as we put her down she'll go calmly back to whatever it was she was doing.
When I pick up my cat and hold her close she will stay there for a few minutes and then struggles to get down,she is more of the type that will come to you if she wants to be pet instead of you going to her. If I don't pick up my cat and just pet her continuously she will remain and allow me to stroke along her ears,down her back and just scratch her which she thoroughly enjoys. I think this is just normal cat behavior but hard to tell as I'm no expert on felines.
I don't think my cat likes being lifted off the ground or carried, but as soon as he is in my arms or on my lap he is full of purrs.
I don't need to pick up my cat too often. As soon as I sit down he leaps onto my lap. He follows me around and waits for me to sit down so he can do this.
My tripod, Roxy, has a hilarious sort of resigned attitude to being lifted. It happens a lot, as her missing front leg causes mobility problems, and if we need her to move it's faster to do it ourselves. You can see it in her face, though, a sort of "Oh, here we go again" look.
She seems a bit more pleased with the arrangement if I turn her on her back and hold her like a human baby, possibly because it takes stress off her spine?
On the other side, my sister's cat had this strange thing where she didn't ever want to NOT be held. She was big, so my sister would actually drape her across her shoulders or over on and she'd just flop there like a fur stole.
My cat, Prim, doesn't mind being picked up. I live in an apartment that is attached to the place where I work so when I pick her up she knows she's going to get to go to work with me, which she loves. In general though she's a pretty chill cat. I work with little kids and she seems to actually like the four-year-old and she tolerates the two-year-old fairly easily as well. I had to give her a bath the other night and she just sat there and let it happen. She didn't look happy, but she didn't fight it. At the shelter where I work we rarely pick up the cats because it doesn't tend to be an interaction that cats are fond of. I guess it really depends on your cat. I don't think the gender of the animal really has much of an effect, especially if they're fixed.
Some cats like being picked up, some don't. Most of my cats don't like it because they have a slightly wilder temper than the others. They prefer freedom and playing in the yard rather than laying around waiting to be scratched on their back while they purr.
Two of my cats would follow me around the house until I sit down so they could climb in my lap. So it depends on the cat.
Your cat is fine, there's nothing abnormal about it.
Never even thought about the fact that my name here doesn't make that obvious! LOL 
