Shy Kitty Does the Catnip Roll

Strange thing happened to me the other day.

My neighbor has a couple of cats; one's a DSH torbie and the other a DSH tuxedo kitty. I was over there asking him to borrow his lawn mower (which he let me do, so now my lawn looks nice, yay!), and saw the tuxedo kitty across the garage. I called it over, talking softly, and it initially ran a few steps away, looking scared; but then as I continued talking, it came up to me and bumped my extended hand with its nose--kind of a kitty "hello".

So this is all normal, basically a shy cat saying hi to a weird stranger who doesn't look too threatening. But the weirdness happened after that. The cat backed up a few steps and started to roll on the pavement, squirming around, four paws in the air, as though it had just gotten a good whiff of catnip! It got up and did this a couple more times, then walked away.

If a friendly cat had done this, I would've thought, "hmm, kitty wants a belly rub"; but this cat was so shy that all it would do was touch my hand with its nose and then back away in a slinky, careful manner--no headbutts, no confident "hello" strut, no talking or purrs.

So why did my neighbor's shy kitty randomly decide to roll on the pavement? Surely it wasn't feeling defensive enough to need to put all four paws into action? I certainly hadn't cornered it; we were just outside the garage and it had three directions to run, had it wanted to do so.

Maybe he/she was letting you know they thought you were trustworthy to a point. I had a cat that once you made eye contact, wouold touch noses, give a lick then roll over. If I ignored her overtures, she would gently pull my face toward her with her paw, then roll over again. If I gave her a belly rub with my hand, she would purr, then capture my hand and give it a thourough cleaning, and she got under every nail. Like I was a kitten. If I put my face in her belly, she would become so estatic she would purr and drool, and she would hold my head with both her front and hind legs (claws retracted) and groom my eye lashes, brow and even my mouth. She was so intense that I had to tell guests, do not make eye contact or talk to the cat unless you want to be groomed against your will

LOL!! Maybe *I* was the shy one!

Of course, I did have to consider the fact that Kitty had four paws' worth of tiny daggers to put into play, if it so chose...