In May we welcomed Gizmo into our home. He was my father’s cat, and he LOVED my dad. I was worried he wouldn’t warm up to me at all, but that turned out to be a misplaced fear. This of course is a good thing, except for one issue. As you can tell from this photo:
Gizmo is very large for a cat, weighing in at 18 pounds. This is a bit of a problem because he likes to climb on top of me when I’m reading a book or watching TV. When he sees me relaxing like that, he doesn’t think, “Ah, my human is resting after her hard work of providing me with food and all the toys I want.” No, he thinks, “Why isn’t my human petting me?! Some nerve!” Then he promptly climbs aboard and settles down.
Gizmo can sit on me in two ways: the Belly Down position
And the Paws Only position.
Now, I do let out an extra groan when he climbs on my lap and assumes the Paws Only position. In either position, there is still 18 pounds of cat weighing me down, but Paws Only is much worse, and I can explain why mathematically.
In the Belly Down position, he assumes more or less the shape of a 14″ x 11″ rectangle. Which means the pressure on me is 0.12 pounds per square inch, since 18/(14 x 11) = 0.116.
When he assumes Paws Only position, all of his weight is on 4 paws roughly 1″ x 1.5″. This is a groan-inspiring 3 pounds per square inch since 18/(1 x 1.5 x 4).
Hmmm, 3 pounds per square versus 0.12 pounds per square inch – which would you rather have on your lap?
I tried explaining these mathematical concepts to Gizmo. His only response was to meow in a way that made his thoughts clear: “I don’t care. And where’s my favorite toy?”
“And where’s my water in a glass?”
Great post. Love the photos, too.
Ha! Ha! Too funny!
Me, I’d go for the 0.12 psi. But I fear that Gizmo will not yield to mathematical reasoning. It’s irrelevant- the real question is, ‘am I comfy?’ or possibly, ‘if I stand up do I get more petting to encourage me to lie down than I would if I just laid down right away?’