do cats get imprinted on people

When Abi was 14-16 weeks she was much more gregarious around strangers. Now at nine months she appears to be a one person cat and shrinks away when anyone else tries to touch her and only comes when I call her. So my husband and I were wondering if cats form an attachment early on that overshadows other potential attachments.

I am not complaining that she is so attached to me, but it is curious to me and my summer house guests were hoping she might be playful with them but she isn't. She only goes in their room if they are not around.

it seems like that could happen I dont see why not if i was a cat im not saying i am i just.... and i only saw say misty all the time for 3 years I would be scared of anyone else.

Hm, I definitely think it could happen. My cat Dinah likes me to carry her EVERYWHERE she goes, and she is constantly crawling all over me (not that I'm complaining, I love the attention as much as she does!). She absolutely begs me to pick her up and carry her around the house.

She loves checking out new people, but if someone else picks her up, she HOWLS and will scratch the person to shreds. She won't even let my boyfriend pick her up, and she's known him as long as she's known me!!

I do think this happens. We 'adopted' Bomba from a shelter when he was only 3-4 weeks old. Way to young, but his Mom passed away. The shelter people told my husband, Bomba most likely wouldn't last too much longer--but at least he'd be in a home. They gave me instructions on feeding, and we gave him 'milk' and Gerber baby food. Also as he didn't know how to use a litter box, I was told to take a warm wet papertowel and wipe his rear (similar to his 'Mom', licking him) and put him in the litter box and wait. He was very tiny and could barely see, and couldn't manage the stairs (way too small to climb up the treads!). Well, he thrived and since I was the main 'caregiver', for the rest of his 18 years I was 'Mom'

I don't think they do it the way birds do though, which is what I think of when you say "imprinting". That's like, psychosis and kinda scary and weird.

Most cats seem to get very attached to one person, but it's more of a preference / favoritism than really imprinting. I'm Zissou's favorite, but my roommate was when she was very very little. Now she follows me around instead!
And when she visited my sister's (I went on vacation) my brother-in-law was her new favorite until I came home, and she still sits in his lap when he's around.

Some breeds are known to do that, especially eg. Russian blues (of which I have one.. leech, who's very skittish with anyone else and even me on occasion.