Pawrent adopts grumpy shelter cat, Mr. Pickles, who took 8 years to trust her – until this ‘not a lap cat’ finally curled up and purred in her arms: ‘I didn’t move. I barely breathed’

One of our cats now isn’t “grumpy”, but she likes her space. She prefers to be in a different room and come and check on us rather than be next to us on the couch. We think she just has a hard time settling down when there are others in the space. That’s okay, we respect her boundaries, even though we would love to smother her with love all the time.