MY human and her friends, most of them cat lovers, often sit around the living room chatting over cups of tea with brownies, hot samosa, jalebi and chicken patties ( I love little nibbles of chicken patties). One of their all-time favourite topics of discussion is “So what is the latest on your cat?”

That’s where the discussion begins and it goes on and on, way after I have taken three little naps under the coffee table, the couch, my favourite arm chair, woken up, stretched, enjoyed little treats of chicken patties, wandered to the kitchen and back.

This time round they want to know why cats love paper? Well… we love it like you love velvet, flannel and soft breezy chiffon and tweed! It is about the feel and the texture. Then another complains how after rushing around and doing a million things, she finally gets a moment to take a look at the newspaper, her cat suddenly appears and plops herself right in the middle of the newspaper. Rustle, crumple, crash! Oh, I have done that many times and will do it again. And before she can say “C.A.T”, the story my human was reading remains no more and my face peers at her through the torn newspaper.

Other very favourite antics we like to perform are sitting on the keyboard when our human friends are trying to do some work, or sitting on the monitor (the chunky older models are nice and warm. I like to curl up, tuck my paws underneath, spread out my tail and go to sleep. The mouse, pencils, paper and books may drop but I’ll attend to that later, right now its snooze time.

Just when my human is getting ready to go to work, she pulls out her outfit for the day and lays it out on the bed. I like to jump the bed, sniff and then sprawl myself all over it. Feels so good! She always complains I spoil the ironing and she also has to pick cat fur from it. So what? Does that mean I should deprive myself of the pleasure of sitting on her nice, clean outfit?

The thing is that we like to lie on different textures, the sound and feel is intriguing for us. Be it pieces of paper, folded towels, clothing, whatever.We like to be near our human beings and their belongings. We feel that if we stick ourselves right under their nose, we will get attention. Cats have a need for warmth and security, and small spaces like shoe boxes, open drawers, folded cloth or a paper bag all make us feel warm and secure.

We also like to leave our scent on anything that belongs to our human friends and it gives us a feeling of security. Call it the jungle instinct because the jungle is full of many exciting sounds and textures. Maybe that is what draws us towards new textures like paper, cloth, wood and wool.

So paper balls, paper bags, any wrapping paper for presents, newspapers, documents, bills, bring them all out and let us have some fun. Even if the house is full of toys, cushy cat beds and tons of furniture, we are happiest when we find a plastic grocery bag on the floor and a paper one is even better. We are natural paper shredders! Don’t you humans just love us, because we are cute, furry and quirky?