A Cat Hack

Published by

Clarissa

July 23, 2026

I urgently need a cat hack to stop my cat rubbing against my legs. She seems to think I find this practice very enjoyable and literally persecutes me with her efforts to do it.

Does anybody know how I communicate to her that I’d rather she abstain from this behavior? Also, why do cats do it? Does anybody know what the evolutionary reason behind it is?

In an utterly unrelated aside, changing the blog template also changed the appearance of what the posts look like while I write them in the app. The change made the process enormously easier. I have no idea how the two things are even connected, but I promise that they will keep working on the new template with the goal of changing the font and adding the number of comments to posts. WordPress has made the editing of templates very hard. It’s currently at the level of what the internet was like in 1996. To get this new template to work at the level of what you are seeing right now took me an hour and a half yesterday. I recognize that it’s imperfect, and I will continue working on it.

Please let me know what to do about the cat, though. Since we’ve been away, she became extremely clingy and wants to be glued to me all day.

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9 responses to “A Cat Hack”

cliff arroyo

July 23, 2026

“my cat rubbing against my legs”

IIRC they’re give you their scent, a sign for other cats to stay away.

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 23, 2026
  
  Wow, I had no idea. It’s comforting to know that there is some purpose behind it.
  
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  1. cliff arroyo
    
    July 23, 2026
    
    “comforting to know that there is some purpose”
    
    The more you know animals the more you realize very little of their behavior is just random… or pre-determined for that matter.
    
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Occasional Reader

July 23, 2026

Cats rubbing tend to be 1) A bonding exercise. They get their scent on you and you get their scent. That’s how they establish that you are “family”. Its kitty affection. Playtime or a scratch can sometimes stop this. Pet her little face along her cheekbones especially. That’s where she is doing the rubbing/ where the glands are locates. 2) They want food or snacks. Sometimes just one small cat treat is enough to stop this. I keep freeze dried chicken breast cat treats on hand. They contain only chicken breast and no strange fillers and won’t make your cat obese. 3) Trying to communicate something else. Sometimes they want more water or their little box cleaned.

Most likely though, it is option 2: they want a snack. 🙂

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Anonymous

July 23, 2026

Our cat is like this and refuses all snacks that we have ever offered but she is very bonded to my oldest daughter. It takes about the same time as we were gone for her clinginess to wear off.

-K

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overgrownhobbit

July 23, 2026

Clicker training.

Just the first one I pulled up btw: https://www.thesprucepets.com/cat-clicker-training-554058

For pet owners with good self-discipline and family who won’t undermine the training: Extinction events are key. Reward what you want, e.g. replace the unwanted behaviour with one you do, and correct or better, obviate what you do not.

Anyone know if cat psyches are similar enough to dogs: good at specifics, e.g. Stay off THIS couch, terrible at generalizing? If not, it might require the whole family to participate which usually dooms the project.

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Anonymous

July 23, 2026

wrap your calves in masking tape facing outwards so the cat would feel the stickiness. Do it for a few days.
or if there is a sound she doesn’t like have ready something that makes it and do it right away when she rubs on your leg. I think that may work better for dogs though

A

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xykademiqz

July 23, 2026

Your new template is the same one I use for my fiction pen names. You’re right, WordPress templates have gone to the dogs. There are very few ones that are clean-looking, somewhat customizable, and actually meant for blogs (i.e., primarily text), and not for people putting up image portfolios or selling products online.

Someone on the Xykademiqz blog (where I’ve also recently updated the template and it’s not great but it’s serviceable) thanked me for not having moved to Substack. I will never move to Substack because I don’t believe every stray thought has to be monetized and I don’t subscribe to anyone’s paid Substack on principle. One of my author friends, who’s had a nice personal website and blog for years, moved to Substack because apparently having a website and blog is “old and outdated” (read: insufficiently monetized). I don’t care; I *am* old and outdated, and not everything is for sale.

I used to have cats when I was young. Mine were super affectionate and really didn’t like to be left alone. Sounds like your cat missed you and is being clingy; it will take a few days for her to relax.

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 23, 2026
  
  I agree 100 regarding Substack. With all of the negative changes in WordPress, it does feel like it gives me more freedom, and in some way that I can’t fully articulate, it’s less of a cage than Substack is.
  
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